Oystercatchers nest on Arun Riverlife
Wildlife notes:
A lone sand martin spent a few hours Sunday morning checking out the nesting holes in the Sand Martin hide artificial nesting bank on the. Is it one of the pair who nested here last year?
Hairy footed flower bees were also burrowing into the sand packed nesting holes of the Sand Martin hide making egg chambers.
First cuckoo of spring was heard on the grounds Sunday morning – located at the back of the reedbed, spotted by visitors.
A pair of oystercatchers has finally picked a nesting spot on the gravel island opposite the windows of our Water’s Edge Café.
Common sandpipers spotted from the Ramsar hide throughout last week.
A couple of linnet on the Tranquil Trail.
Damsel flies are emerging with blue tailed, azure and variable species on the wing.
Wildlife Sightings
Arun Riverlife:
- male tufted ducks, fewer females as they are starting to sit on eggs
- toad tadpoles in good numbers
- oystercatcher pair nesting on gravel island
- black-headed gulls nesting on gravel island
Woodland Loop:
- Goldfinches
- Willow warbler
- mallard ducklings
Wetland Discovery (spotted by our boat drivers):
- water voles
- black tailed skimmer dragonfly
- broad bodied chaser
- damselfly
Reedbed boardwalk:
- Willow warblers
- Black cap
- Chaffinch
- Mandarin ducks (tree nesting ducks)
- chiff chaff nest spotted in the reedbed
- water vole at Dragonfly Pond
Lagoons:
- male pochard ducks, no females visible here or onsite as must be on nests
- male gadwall no females visible here or onsite as must be on nest
- male shoveller, no females visible here or onsite as must be on nests
- mostly male tufted ducks, few females
Tranquil Trail Path:
- Pair of linnets
- Pair of owslip flowering
- Black cap
- Lesser celandine flowering
- Brimstone butterfly egg laying on buckthorn, not many leaves
- Green veined white butterflies
Wet meadows:
- Lapwing nesting opposite Ramsar hide, and out from Lapwing hide
- Grey heron (mobbed by black-headed gulls)
- Greylag geese pairs with goslings
- orange tip butterflies
Sand Martin hide:
- house martins
- sand martins
- swallows
- Black-headed gulls
- Mediterranean gulls
On the feeders
- blackbirds and young
- bullfinch pair
- goldfinches
- blue tits
