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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...

The Arun nearly overtopped its banks today and yesterday, so although the brooks are very wet, it doesn't look like we'll have a complete flood event this week. The sheer volume of water coming off the higher fields yesterday morning temporarily flooded the nature trail near west mead but this...

2 lesser spotted woodpeckers (!) in the vicinity of Fattengates courtyard at about 10.30 this morning (per Peter Moon, Gary Trew, Marc Shaw et al). On the north brooks approx 70 black-tailed godwits, 6 ruff, 2 golden plovers, several hundred each of wigeon, lapwing and teal, and smaller numbers of...

Its looking properly wintry on the brooks now - lots of wigeon, teal, shoveler, lapwing, greylag geese, Canada geese all over the brooks. A few pintail, single black-tailed godwit and up to 3 ruff have been present over the last few days and the female peregrine has been using her usual perch at the...

Various waders still present/passing through in the last two days include greenshank, ruff, common sandpiper, snipe, dunlin, ringed plover, little ringed plover, green sandpiper, and of course lapwing. Wood sandpiper (see photo, thanks Graham) seen yesterday, though not reported today up to 4pm. Two...

Single pink-footed goose and 12 white-fronted geese have been present over the last couple of days - when they are not are Pulborough Brooks they are often to be found at Amberley wild brooks. The pink-foot is usually associating with greylags. Fabulous, busy, colourful flocks of wigeon are showing really...

Great spotted woodpeckers (at least two) drumming on the heath yesterday in the mild conditions, and around the beech trees on the clump were lots of small birds feeding on the fallen mast. Mostly chaffinches, great tits, coal tits and blue tits, plus a couple of nuthatches. Hundreds of lapwings spread...

12 white-fronted geese on the north brooks today - the first of the autumn, found by regular volunteer Clive Hope at about midday. A few black-tailed godwits, ruff and golden plover amongst the lapwings. Crossbills, redpolls and siskins on the heath. Sadly, no one has reported the yellow-browed warbler...

A yellow-browed warbler still in the scrub/trees at the top of the zig-zag path today (ie about 100m from the visitor centre) - elusive but a few folk have managed to catch up with it. It was found on Monday by a couple of regular visitors and by the sounds of it, has been roaming between west mead hide...

...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...

Yesteday - a short-eared owl over south brooks/near Winpenny hide (it seemed to head off to the north), plus juvenile marsh harrier over the north brooks. A small group of crossbills were on the heath, where there are reasonable numbers of siskins and redpolls to be found. 2 ravens were also seen overhead...

A barn owl has been roosting in the box in the visitor centre roof for the last couple of weeks. The tea room roof is clearly a favoured perch. On the north brooks yesterday a little stint, 4 or 5 ruff, at least 1 green sandpiper. A peregrine caught a teal at about 07.45. A few small parties of swallows...

Fine morning and a fair bit of overhead traffic. Over/on the south brooks at 08.00 small numbers of swallows, yellow wagtails, siskins, skylarks, pied wagtails and single grey wagtail. Also noted a hobby, a spotted flycatcher (perhaps my last of both this summer?), and a stonechat (my first on the brooks...

The north brooks this morning looked like autumn with a small flock of rusty-brown wigeon (nearly 50) and a variety of waders - a few black-tailed godwits, dunlins, ruff, snipe and many lapwing. Sadly, no sign of yesterday's curlew sandpipers. There was also this splendid fox sitting in the sunshine...

About 8 pintail present on the north brooks this morning, having presumeably arrived overnight. There were also in the region of 320 mallard and 200 teal, plus a handful of wigeon, giving the site a more autumnal feel - not surprising after yesterday's weather. The knot remains (!) into its 11th...

Myself and two of our volunteers led a guided walk last night, looking for all things crespuscular and nocturnal, and we had a good evening. We couldn't find a barn owl, but remarkably, whilst we were watching a few pipistrelle bats (55s according to the bat detector) charging around in front of...

Good day on the reserve yesterday - apart from the wryneck, which appeared on-and-off throughout the day, the north brooks held an interesting selection of waders: 1 Temminck's stint, 1 little stint, up to 11 ruff, 2 or 3 greenshank, 1 or 2 common sandpipers, up to 12 snipe, plus several ringed plovers...

Single Temminck's stint still present on the north brooks this morning, along with a little stint, at least 6 ruff, 4 green sandpipers, 4 little ringed plovers, 2 ringed plovers and common sandpiper. Was interesting to see the two species of stint close together - the little bustling about constantly...

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...

At least one juvenile marsh harrier was hunting across the south brooks yesterday morning - this is typical August bird for us here and this one was right on cue. If previous years are anything to go by, it will stay around for some weeks. A young cuckoo was also present yesterday, eating cinnabar caterpillars...

One or two barn owls continue to put on a good show hunting along the riverbank of the north brooks at various times of the day - mostly during the afternoon but one was out and about at 10.30 this morning. The female peregrine was sitting in her usual tree at the hanger at the same time. The male hen...

'Our' male hen harrier made is still appearing on a daily basis, disturbing all the wintering ducks and a search through the flocks of lapwings (about 2500 on the reserve yesterday) should produce about 50 black-tailed godwits, a few dunlin and ruff. At least two barn owls are regularly hunting...