Browse by Tags

...swifts over the north brooks this morning. 2 male wigeon, a few teal, 1 shoveler, about 12 gadwall, 22 shelduck, ca.45 mallard, ca.15 lapwings and a couple of redshank spread around the pools. Passage waders have been thin on the ground the last 2 weeks, but a few ringed plover were present on 20...

It is always nice when you can spend at least some of your day at work doing what you love best, even better when it means you can leave the computer and the office behind and head out into glorious sunshine and count butterflies! Yesterday I did just that. We are doing a butterfly transect on the...

Cloudless skies, warm sunshine, blackthorn in sensational full whiteout mode, butterflies on the wing, bluebells just blueing-up and the first damselfly of the year...it must be April. Except it is early May. Last year, the blackthorn reached the same stage of flowering exactly a month earlier. Several...

Saw my first hobby of the year yesterday, high over the heath. There have been up to 4 seen over the south brooks in the last week, but hopefully the main passage of these brilliant to watch falcons is still to come in the first 10 days of may. Around the trail, nightingales still singing like mad...

Hello! The eagle-eyed amongst you may have already spotted that the name on this blog post is not that of regular Pulborough Brooks Bloggers, Anna or Pete, but a new face! I am Sophie May Lewis, Visitor Services Trainee and started at Pulborough Brooks at the beginning of the month. I will be in the...

Something of a deluge of spring migrants over the last 3 days, to go with the other deluge (16mm of rain on saturday) - probably 7 nightingales singing from various parts of the site today, plus blackcaps, willow warbler and chiffchaffs. The first whitethroat, sedge warbler, redstart, grasshopper warbler...

The first nightingale of the year singing near little hanger hide this morning, a blackcap too, singing in the srub at the hanger and at least 8 chiffchaffs around the trail. A greenshank was at west mead, which presumeably arrived on the same south-westerlies as the nightingale, blackcap and chiffchaffs...

There was a touch of intergalactic Hollywood glamour on Amberley wildbrooks this morning. I'm not sure how long this balloon will take to rot down, but I imagine it will be quite a long time. Possibly a very, very long time. So I picked it up and stuck it in the bin. Sorry Buzz.. Rather better were...

A male lesser spotted woodpecker has been drumming on 'the clump' (the large oaks on the edge of the heath, about 200m south of the car park) over the last few days - you'll have to get here early though, as the last two days it has been showing best from between 07.00 and 08.00. Whilst trying...

April has arrived, at least technically, if not in spirit - the bitterly cold easterlies continue. Good selection of birds on site in recent days - up to 7 garganey arrived on friday on the north brooks, a jack snipe was in front of Winpenny hide on saturday, a lesser spotted woodpecker was seen...

An interesting selection of waders on view from west mead and winpenny hides this morning - at least 14 ruff (a couple with lovely dark brown necks/breasts), 2 ringed plover, 2 little ringed plover, 5 redshank, 1 black-tailed godwit and about 8 dunlin. The little ringed plovers (see below, thanks Graham...

Both ringed and little ringed plovers were seen on the reserve today - at least two of each present on the south brooks at about 13.00. The LRPs were suitable elusive, but hopefully they will be more visible over the coming days. And I hope they won't mind the rain/sleet/snow mix that was on offer...

Please be aware that there will be some disturbance to the pools in front of West Mead and Winpenny hides tomorrow (Tues 5th) due to essential work being carried out nearby. Apologies for any inconvenience. On the north brooks today up to 16 ruff, a single redshank and plenty of the usual suspects...

This morning, although still cold and grey, there were reed buntings, yellowhammers and skylarks singing on the north brooks. A carrion crow carrying sticks and a several lapwings displaying were other signs of the lengthening days. At least 3 little egrets were on the north brooks. Huge numbers of...

..and please stop throwing your empty bottles in the River Arun. I was walking along the flood defence bank yesterday, surveying the usual assortment of junk that gets left high and dry by the winter floods. Estate agent's signs, a traffic cone, fence posts, fishing floats, children's toys, aerosol...

I saw my first adder of the year this afternoon, as did a lot of other people. I expect this is one of the most photographed reptiles in Sussex, as a continuous stream of visitors came past and snapped away as it soaked up the warm-ish February sunshine. Please remember, if you see a basking adder, keep...

Disorientating amouts of sunshine today after what seems like months of grey, and there was a little bit of spring on show. Green shoots of bluebells are now noticeable in parts of the woodland and pristine white sallow buds are just starting to burst. Lots of bird song in response to the decent weather...

Huge numbers of ducks on the Amberley brooks this morning - ca.3500 wigeon, 250 pintail, 1100 teal, 50 gadwall, 60 mallard, 130 shoveler, 500 lapwing and 14 ruff. There were also 39 Bewick's swans roosting on the eastern side of the brooks - they left at 07.35 and flew SW over Amberley village, presumeably...

More of a thaw occuring today, but still some snow/ice/slush remains. The north brooks and the pool at west mead have some large areas of open water now, and small numbers of teal, wigeon, pintail, shoveler, gadwall and shelduck were present this morning. Highlight was 6 or 7 white-fronted geese in with...

Nine Bewick's swans flew into the north brooks at 13.30 yesterday and spent most of the afternoon feeding right in front of Nettley's hide (one of them pictured below, thanks Graham). The Bewick's even made it onto BBC South Today last night, as I was being interviewed about the dreadful...

This year so far seems a lot like last year - both the Pulborough Brooks and Amberley Wild Brooks (both pictured below) are almost completely underwater, although water levels are dropping. Bewick's swans have been on the reserve for the last two days - four adults showed well from Nettley's...

The brooks are 100% under water, but the trail still passable with wellies/waterproof boots and all hides accessible, though please be aware this situation may change over the coming days. The floodwaters were covered with thousands of ducks this morning - I estimated ca.210 pintail and 1200 teal...

This is a long range shot of the River Stor bank at the North end of the site. As you can see, we are filling up here at Pulborough Brooks and if this erosion continues, the river bank will fail and we will be inundated by flood water a little quicker than is happening at the moment. A section of the...

...but the River Arun and River Stor are enthusiastically overtopping their respective flood defence banks this morning. We had 36mm of rain between Wednesday lunchtime and thursday evening and more is on its way tonight. It is diffiuclt to say for sure, but this is likely to flood the nature trail between...

It has been rather damp for the last week, and it is looking like it will get a lot damper in the next 24 hrs. The brooks here at PB are already about 70% flooded, and teeming with ducks and waders. This month's waterfowl count produced ca.235 black-tailed godwits, 85 pintail, 650 wigeon, 350 teal...