Kingfishers and little grebe fish on Arun Riverlife
Paul Steven’s weekly diary runs as the Wildlife Sightings column in the weekly Observer series of newspapers.
It’s raining again today. Last week we had over 122 mm of rain on the reserve last week. The teal have dispersed out into the Arun Valley as the higher water levels have given them more spots to dabble in. Tufted duck numbers have increased and the pochards are beginning to arrive - I counted five on Arun Riverlife this morning.
I watched a little grebe fishing on Arun Riverlife this morning. This juvenile still has its yellow bill and streaks on its cheeks. The juvenile and an adult have been seen on the Scrape hide over the past week. These are likely the little grebes that bred on Swanbourne Lake this spring and have moved over to fish and feed on our reserve. Also on the waters near the Scrape hide there were six shovelers and I saw another two from the Sand Martin hide.
I caught sight of the kingfisher on the perch outside the artificial kingfisher bank. He moved on after a few dives but was back a few minutes later. He was streaking towards the perch with a fish in his mouth when two black headed gulls swooped and chased him off, trying to take his fish. Since then I have had 4 more kingfisher sighting on the reserve, one position was hover around the Ramsar hide which seems to be a favourite spot. We know there is more than one kingfisher around our reserve from the frequency and arrangement of sightings by staff and visitors.
On Sunday late in the day I was excited to count over 100 pied wagtail perched up on the roof of the visitor centre. I raced down the long path towards the reedbed hide in time to see them break into three smaller groups. They headed towards the reedbed, did a few fly pasts before settling to roost in the reeds overnight. I was pleased to see the pied wagtail roost back again this year. We had them roost regularly last winter. As the days get darker the will roost early until eventually you can see it around 4 pm. Hopefully their antics will attract the starling roost in again too.
Goldcrests have been flocking up around the reserve mixed in with chiff chaffs, long-tailed and blue tits. Snipe sightings are up – I accidentally flushed six snipe near the Lapwing hide when I was working on the wet meadow last Thursday. More cormorants are visiting the reserve to fish. They seem to be roosting in a tree near the Black Rabbit pub.
