Latest sightings
National Dragonfly Week
It's National Dragonfly week July 6-14th!
11 July 2024
Emerging toadlets
Watch your feet! During warm, damp weather at this time of year tiny toadlets emerge from the ponds at WWT Arundel and onto the pathways to begin life outside the water. Toadlets are the same colour as the dirt, asphalt and pavement they are on, so we're
9 July 2024
Bees, bugs and lunar hornet moths
Plenty of small birds around this week with reed warbler, sedge warblers, chiffchaff, black cap and greenfinches. A great spotted woodpecker is still around in the Wood land Loop. We had a whitethroat singing a the back of the wet grassland on Saturday.
3 July 2024
Peregrine young on Offham hangar
On Tuesday we recorded on our daily sightings that our regular pair of peregrine, who nest each year on the Offham Hangar, were seen with two youngsters overflying the reserve and perching up. Sharp-eyed visitor Mike Jerome spotted the youngsters with an
27 June 2024
Bat trapping and grass snakes
Despite the changeable weather, we have seen an abundance of Grass Snakes with one of our refugia found with up to six snakes at a time taking advantage of it’s warmth. Common Lizards have also been spotted basking along rails on the Long Path fence. We
19 June 2024
Fledglings!
The first brood of kingfishers are fledging – last Sunday Reserve Manager Suzi Lanaway saw one youngster with the tell-tale white tip on its bill out of the nest on perch 3 calling for food from its parents. Since then the male has been seen clearing ne
5 June 2024
Oystercatcher and gull chicks
Look out on the islands from the sand martin hide and on Arun Riverlife – black-headed gull chicks began hatching out this week. A pair of oystercatchers opposite the Ramsar hide have been spotted with at least two chicks. A second pair of mute swans we
29 May 2024
Nesting oystercatchers and active kings
One oystercatcher pair looks to be sitting on a nest on an island from the Sand martin hide. The pair or one seem to be mobbing any curious predatory crows. On the Arun Riverlife lagoon the kingfishers are still really active this week – were still wai
21 May 2024
Tawny owlet and sand piper
A tawny owlet started branching on Mon 13 May from its box on an island in Wetlands Discovery. Tawny owls leave the nest to scramble around branches before they can fly. This is the first time that tawny owls have used one of our nest boxes at this end of
15 May 2024
Curlew onsite
A curlew wearing coloured leg rings was spotted by WWT wardens from the Ramsar hide on Wed 8 May in the afternoon. It had been spotted by visitors from the Sand martin hide as well. Some of the nesting black-headed gulls swooped it a few times, in case it
9 May 2024
Goslings, ducklings and chicks
There are plenty of opportunities for “cute” wildlife photos across WWT Arundel's site now that spring is underway. There are at least 5 greylag geese pairs with goslings in tow and similar number of Canada geese pairs. The geese frequent the picnic a
30 April 2024
Moth survey & butterfly eggs
The first moth survey of the season only attracted 3 moths and a female minotaur beetle, due to the cold temperatures. We did have a lovely emperor moth sitting on the access gate for staff to the Pelican Cove exhibit on Tues 23 on Monday morning. Cuckoo
24 April 2024
Warbler, martins and young ones
Summer migrants are returning, with the songs of sedge and reed warblers filling the reedbeds. Cetti’s warblers are around as well and several black caps and a lesser whitethroat seen over the past few days. The sand martins have return returned and
18 April 2024
Spring birds on the nest
A female mallard with 6 ducklings in tow was spotted on the Wet Grassland on Monday. Moorhen chicks have also been spotted on a ditch behind our duckery. A pair of pergrines have been spotted on the Offham hangar, likely the pair that annually nest on the
29 March 2024
Bittern, kingfishers, lapwings & oystercatchers
Reserve Supervisor Rosie flushed up a bittern about 5m away from the front of the Scrape hide this morning (Thurs 21 March) while working in the area. Kingfishers have been using the nest hole 5 in the Arun Riverlife nest bank again this year. There has b
21 March 2024