Birds of prey pairing up & a dormouse discovered
Paul Steven’s weekly Wildlife Sightings column appears in the Chichester Observer, the Littlehampton Gazette, the Bognor Regis Observer, the Shoreham Herald and the Worthing Herald.
Feb 17: The lone oystercatcher that arrived at WWT Arundel Wetland Centre last Monday was joined by its mate on Sunday and the pair can be seen on the wet grassland from the Ramsar hide. Oystercatchers are faithful to their nesting grounds and the pair raised a youngster here last year. They are good parents and react aggressively to keep gulls and crows away from their chicks. Currently the oystercatchers are on territory but won’t be on the nest until the end of March to early April. We hope to see the other pair of oystercatchers that nested at our Arun Riverlife last year return as well.
WWT grounds volunteer Nigel noticed the lid was askew on one of our dormice nesting boxes last Wednesday. While putting it right he saw a nest inside the box. Nigel had to wait for me to return from a few days off to check the box – you need to be trained and licensed to handle dormice as they are a protected species. I discovered a dormouse hibernating inside. This is the first time I have found one hibernating in one of our boxes. Dormice need a constant temperature to keep them in torpor all winter so they build a nest ball close to the ground in a dark spot. I wonder if high waters had disturbed this little one prompting his move into the nest box some four feet above the ground. I will resume my monthly surveys of our dormice nest boxes and nesting tubes at the beginning of April to start to building a picture of how this wet winter has affected the population.
Offham Hangar has been echoing with the screeches of birds of prey. The hunters have start pairing up for the season. This morning I saw a kestrel and heard it calling to another. Several red kites were spotted all last week and Sam saw a sparrowhawk on Sunday. We definitely have a pair of buzzards up there and a pair of ravens, too.
A juvenile marsh harrier was seen at the far corner of the reserve, near the Black rabbit pub.
