A flush of snipe and squabbling egrets
Paul Steven's weekly wildlife sightings column runs every Thursday in the Chichester Observer, Bognor Regis Observer and Littlehampton Gazette.
November 24, 2016
The 'surprise of the week' for me last week was finding an juvenile common fro active in our Icelandic exhibit in November. We have been finding all sorts of frogs, toads and beetles enoying the habitat in this exhibit. I think the microclimate that has formed in the exhibit from the central waterfalls, concrete lining attracting & holding warmth and low plants for ground cover are attracting the amphibians and their food source - invertebrates.
Another surprise was seeing a buff-tailed bumblebee queen active in the Wildlife garden last Friday. It wasn’t a particularly warm day but she was out, nectaring on a winter-flowering viburnum shrub.
On Friday I watched four cormorants fishing in the morning from the Ramsar hide. The four cormorants were stretched out in a line and were herding the fish, forcing them into smaller group to improve their chances of a catch when they dove. I saw 60 lapwings take to the sky over the water from the Ramsar hide. I suspect we are getting them into roost overnight. Four to six lapwings are remaining around throughout the day. Last year we had about 200 lapwing onsite during the day in the very cold weather but they weren’t roosting here apart from that cold snap.
This week I noticed mixed flocks made up of of fieldfare and red wings in the hedgerows eating the hawthorn berries. These species flock together and winter onsite. I also saw a flock of 10-15 long-tailed tits come into roost in the willow that hangs over the water near the window in the cafe serving area.
Snipe are showing at most hides although they are difficult to spot with their excellent buff-coloured, stripy camouflage. Warden Linda and I walked the wet grassland area on Friday to see what maintenance cutting was left to do. Our stroll flushed 30- 40 snipe so I know there are so many more of these waders tucked back in the reeds than we are able to see from the hide windows.
Last Saturday dark clouds descended on the reserve like a curtain at 3 pm bringing in 12 little egrets to roost. There was plenty of squawking as the dozen jostled for perches in the branches of the trees sheltered in the cove to the right of the Ramsar hide. The little egrets knew that Storm Angus was about to roll in.
