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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...

Some of you may know that when we're out on the reserve, we tend to carry radio handsets around, in part so we can share news of any exciting wildlife flying (or scurrying/fluttering/beetling) around. Around lunch time today we heard our warden Pete announce over the radio that there was a hen harrier...

...wait half an hour. Was something of a changeable day today, but at least we had the first significant rain since late August. This brought about 40 pintail to the north brooks, the largest flock so far this autumn. 2 peregrines also noted ( 1 adult female and 1 juvenile). 2 ruff were amongst the lapwing...

2 juvenile marsh harriers spent some of the morning hunting over the north brooks today, putting the wind up ca.200 wigeon and ca.150 teal and occasionally annoying each other. 4 ruff and single golden plover amongst ca.200 lapwings. First fieldfares and redwings of the autumn arriving - small parties...

Around the trail/hedges this morning were many migrant warblers - mostly whitethroats as far as I could tell, but also redstart, lesser whitethroat and willow warbler. On the north brooks, 2 ruff, 1 greenshank, 2 little ringed plover, 1 dunlin and at least 8 green sandpipers amongst about 100 lapwings...

This morning on the north brooks - 2 ruff, 1 greenshank, 4 dunlin, 1 ringed plover, at least 7 green sandpipers, 2 common sandpipers, ca 100 lapwing and ca.110 greylag geese. Marsh harrier still being seen regularly, and yesterday, 2 whinchats on north brooks and 2 redstarts at redstart corner (ie. on...

It was cool and felt like autumn this morning and the birds rather reinforced this - 5 black-tailed godwits and at least 8 green sandpipers on the north brooks were no doubt heading south. Plenty lapwings, ca. 130 greylags geese, a few teal, shelduck, mallard and mandarin also present. Large numbers...

Last week's wryneck and spoonbills were topped by an all too brief gull-billed tern that was seen by a couple of birders on sunday morning for a few minutes before it headed north. This morning saw the run of good birds continuing as a Temminck's stint was on the pool in front of west mead hide...

A fantastic weekend of passage waders - up to 10 species present on monday - was topped by the appearance of a wryneck on tuesday. A truly fantastic bird. Described by my colleague Paul as "like a squashed bittern", this small camoflagued migrant woodpecker is now a very rare visitor to the...

After a few days of bright but chilly weather recently, today there was a definite sign of spring - a little ringed plover on the north brooks. These birds usually arrive in March here and are often the first spring migrants to be seen. A grass snake was seen yesterday, and again, mid-March is right...

The male hen harrier that has been regularly seen in the Arun valley since Christmas was at Pulborough Brooks again this morning - it was hunting over the Amberley brooks on tuesday morning. Huge numbers of wildfowl on the Amberley and Pulborough brooks over the last few days - mostly wigeon and teal...

16 Bewick's swans roosted on the pool in front of west mead hide overnight - they left at 08.15 this morning, flying off south down the valley to feed. There were 10 in the same spot yesterday morning - they left precisely an hour earlier, though it was much gloomier this morning due to the overcast...

Few birds using the very frozen, snow-covered brooks over the last few days - most of the wildfowl is confined to the river, although there was a flock of ca.170 lapwings on the north brooks and another 50 on the south brooks. Highlights this morning were a raven overhead heading SE, a barn owl hunting...

The snow of last week has gone and the remaining ducks (wigeon and teal) are mostly confined to the river due to the ice, although there is a gradual thaw going on. A few lapwing and snipe are scattered across the brooks, and surpisingly a redshank and a green sandpiper were present this morning. Many...

2 Bewick's swans were on the north brooks for most of yesterday morning, and another single Bewick's was present at 08.00 today - we'd expect a few more parties of these birds to arrive in the next few days as the weather has turned distinctly chilly. The short-eared owl is still being seen...

Missed the short-eared owl again this moring - one of our visitors reported it near little hanger hide. Black-tailed godwit numbers have rocketed over the weekend, with around 330 on site yesterday. As far as I know Pulborough Brooks has never seen this numbers of bl-t godwits. Will be interesting to...

Ca. 25 redpoll yesterday morning in the birches at the start of the nature trail. A ring ouzel was reported nearby. The brooks are nicely flooded for the winter and ca. 1000 wigeon spread across the site, plenty teal, mallard, shoveler, pintail, lapwing and snipe (you could see them once the fog had...

Around the trail, after the strong winds and torrential rain this morning, plenty small birds were active - (lesser) redpolls in the birches nr the visitor centre, redwings and fieldfares all over the place, blue and great tits in the hedgerows, 2 or 3 green woodpeckers and a few small parties of goldfinches...

4 Bewick's swans, all adults, on the north brooks today - possibly the earliest ever Sussex arrivals (late November to early December is more normal). What do they know we don't?! They apparently arrived about 10.30-11am and promptly went to sleep, as you would if you've just flown in from...

A ring ouzel has been present nr west mead today and yesterday - generally feeding in a berry-laden hawthorn next to stack of hay bales. The weekend's rain has now filled up many of the pools all over the site. Ca. 150 teal (and 3 pintail) were feeding in front of west mead hide, and there are...

About 12 pintail on the north brooks yesterday - plus the usual wigeon, shoveler, teal and lapwing. Earlier in the week (tuesday) a greenshank and a dunlin were in the same area. Peregrine seen regularly this week over the site, a hobby was still around yesterday (weds). A few goldcrests, 2 chiffchaffs...

Our regular wintering peregrines seem to have reappeared. I saw the female once last week, and a male on several occasion, usually hunting over the pools or sitting on the ground out in the middle of the north brooks. A firecrest was in one of the large hollies next to the bridleway on saturday (25th...