Warblers singing & kingfishers still on nest
The kingfisher pair are still nesting in the bank on Arundel Riverlife lagoon. Last Friday our wardens spotted the female kingfisher on the perch to the left side of the nesting bank for a few moments before the male kingfisher emerged from hole #5 and joined her. The male then flew off and the female returned into hole #5.
Sedge and reed warblers are singing on site. Visually, they’re relatively easy to tell apart – the sedge with a well-marked eye-stripe.
However, what if you can’t see the bird and can only hear its song? The reed warbler above photographed by WWT Volunteer Andy Burns thinks it is well hidden. The reed warbler is chatty, slow-paced, repeating similar notes with the odd whistle thrown in. In comparison, the song of the sedge warbler is more variable, using some long and loud un-varied notes, interjected with a rapid outpouring of whistles and trills.
But beware, both can mimic and use other bird calls in their own song!
Sat 24 April
Lapwing hide: 6 lapwing in three pair
Ramsar & Sand Martin hide: 2 oystercatchers on island in front of the hide.
Scrape hide: 1 female lapwing on fen cut in front of the hide.
Arun Riverlife lagoon: pair of lapwing, 2 pochard, 15 tufted ducks, 1 shelduck, 3 Canada geese, 2 greylag geese, 7 mallard (with 16 ducklings), 2 coots. 7 black-headed gulls.
Sunday 25 April
Arun Riverlife lagoon: 3 lapwing feeding in different areas.
Wetland Discovery: 4 mallards, 2 Canada geese, 5 sedge warblers, 1 chiffchaff, 1 Cetti’s warbler, 1 black-headed gull, 1 whitethroat, 2 tufted ducks, 5 greylags (with 5 goslings), 2 grass snakes (under survey tins), 1 large red damselfly.
Lapwing hide: 5 lapwing with one male mobbing a grey heron.
Sand martin hide: 8 sand martins in and out of holes.
Scrape hide: 2 snipe, 2 sand martins, and 2 lapwing – a pair.
Monday 26 April
Lapwing hide: 4 lapwing – one female sitting on nest and one male displaying, 6 adult greylag geese and 10 goslings, 5 black-headed gull, 1 teal, 3 coots, 4 mallards, 1 pheasant, 1 shelduck, 5 Canada geese.
Sand martin hide: 2 sand martins.
Scrape hide: 1 lapwing
Arun Riverlife: 1 lapwing, 2 oystercatchers.
Tues 27 April
Arun Riverlife: 2 oystercatchers, 1 lapwing
Lapwing hide: 4 lapwings – 3 males and one females with males mobbing crows and a pheasant
Ramsar and Sand Martin hide: 20 Canada geese, 8 adults and 8 greylag goslings, 2 cackling geese, 1 mute swan, 20 tufted ducks- 12 male and 8 female, 10 gadwall - 8 male 2 female, 1 pochard, 15 mallards -12 male 3 female, 72 black-headed gulls, 4 Mediterranean gulls, 1 coot, 1 male lapwing, 1 moorhen, 1 oystercatcher on Sand Martin hide roof, 20 sand martins, 10 common gulls, 1 male shelduck.
Scrape hide: 2 pochards, 1 male lapwing
Reedbed hide: 1 reed warbler
Wed 28 April
Arun Riverlife: 2 tufted ducks a pair, a pair of shelduck, 3 lapwings, 3 gadwall – one pair and a male
Coast Creek: 2 oystercatcher, 1 gadwall.
Woodland Loop: 1 tree creeper, 1 marsh tit, 1 blackcap
Woodland Carr: 1 chiffchaff singing.
Long path: 1 long-tailed tit entering a nest site, blue tit entering a dormouse nest box, long tailed tit entering nest site with food.
Scrape hide: 1 snipe, 1 pochard, 1 shoveler, 2 tufted ducks, 2 Cetti’s warbler, 17 black-headed gulls, 2 shelducks, 21 mallards
Lapwing hide: 5 lapwing, 4 shoveler – 1 pair and 2 males
Log ditch: 1 water rail.
