Anticipation!
Well thinks are very slow here at Arundel at the moment. The weather is so very mild that dragonflies, such as Common darter and migrant hawker are still on the wing. Red admirals and amazingly a Common Carder Bumblebee are also active. A Song thrush was belting out its repeating song the other evening. Certainly a strange November so far. I am really starting to think that there won't be any cold weather this side of Christmas. Great to see a small flock of 200 plus starlings starting to use the reedbed as a roost this year. Will it build up to the 6000 birds we had several winters ago?
Very exciting views of 11 snipe out on the lost reedbed from the scrape hide yesterday. These flew up as I was checking on management work and would have been totally hidden from being spotted from the hide. Just goes to show that often there is more out there than you realise. One of my team disturbed a woodcock from a ditch yesterday, the first of the winter.
Great show out on swan lake yesterday with at least three kingfishers flashing around in the lovely autumn sunshine. A water rail also put in an appearance just in front of the main window. This seems to be a regular spot each winter for this species.
The wet grassland has been tantilising me recently. Three wigeon began feeding on the new grass shoots last week, but only for part of the morning. Two Lapwing dropped in briefly at the beginning of the week and 52 greylag geese thought about landing one evening but after several passes went back up the valley. It is looking prime habitat out here, but the birds just aren't hanging around! Must be more patient.
