Bio-blitz butterflies & a soaring sparrow hawk
Paul Steven’s weekly Wildlife Sightings column also appears in the Chichester Observer, the Littlehampton Gazette, the Bognor Regis Observer, the Shoreham Herald and the Worthing Herald.
COLIN Knight of Butterfly Conservation Sussex took part in our Bio-blitz of wildlife surveys, spotting 38 butterflies in an hour during his survey last Thursday. Along our perimeter fence Colin spotted 14 speckled wood butterflies. These dark brown butterflies with creamy white patches on their wings really favour the trees along the fence line. You can look for them in woodland, gardens and hedgerows. They perch up in sunny spots and spiral into the air to chase each other.
Colin found eight common blue butterflies. The species are at the peak of their second emergence now. These are most active in sunshine. In cloudy weather they sit on grass stems with their heads pointing down. Colin also found one of my favourites, a clouded yellow, on the meadow nearest the river.
During his survey Colin spotted a common sandpiper at the Sand Martin hide and it’s been hanging around there all week. Our Guides-in-the-Hides were also seeing it over the weekend. I was working near the hide on Tuesday and saw over one hundred sand martins checking out the colony calls on the speakers. I also saw two kingfishers fly past at different times while I was in the water.
Visitors and WWT boat drivers are reporting that there is an abundance of young water voles in Wetlands Discovery. The voles are also popping up inside some of our netted exhibits like the Icelandic Lake pen and Waterfall pen, where they are robbing the food dishes of the rare ducks!
The days have been a bit cooler this week and the trees of the Offham Hangar, overlooking the reserve, are showing subtle colour changes. Dave Barrett photographed a sparrow hawk that was hunting over the reserve last Friday. I spotted a water rail in the reedbed – a sure sign that autumn is on its way.
