Egrets & herons enjoying project mud
The water on the Arundel lagoon project has been drained down slowly, much to the delight of little, cattle and great white egrets who have been helping to de-fish the lake remnants!
The water on the Arundel lagoon project has been drained down slowly, much to the delight of little, cattle and great white egrets who have been helping to de-fish the lake remnants! Visitor Mike Jerome capture this image a great white egret with its fishy lunch.
There was also a Green Sandpiper taking advantage of the pickings amongst the newly exposed silt for a good two weeks. On Thursday (4th November), the current great white egret resident was joined by another….could this be the start of something beautiful?! Lagoon works so far include revetment to the eroding wet grassland, and the lowering of the two back islands to create shallow feeding areas for waders, once the water is back in.
The peeping sounds of Kingfishers can be heard all over the place, as can the wounded piglet sound of Water Rail. Numbers of shoveler, gadwall and teal are increasing almost daily. On Sunday we spotted a family of Mallard ducklings in the old Tundra pen- very late in the season.
We are still seeing some red admiral butterflies when its sunny - they will overwinter as adults, tucked away somewhere.
Tues 9 Nov
Scrape hide: great white egret, 2 teal
Pelican cove: 3 pochard
Arun Riverlife: 1 pochard
Lapwing hide: 1 great white egret
Ramsar and sand martin hides: 3 grey heron, 4 moorhen, 1 kestrel, 1 black-headed gull, 6 shoveler, 2 mallards, 2 moorhen
Mon 8 Nov
Pelican cove: 6 gadwall (4 male, 2 female), 3 pochard
Arun Riverlife: 1 pochard
Lapwing hide: 1 grey heron
Scrape hide: 4 cattle egret, 1 great white egret, 1 mute swan, 18 shovelers
Ramsar & Sand martin hide: 21 teal, 3 grey herons, 1 mute swan
Wetland Discovery: 1 kingfisher
Sun 7 Nov
Pelican cove: 3 pochard
Wetland Discovery: 17 Canada geese, 20 mallards, 2 gadwall, 5 tufted ducks, 2 coots, 1 mute swan
Ramsar and Sand martin hide: 3 grey herons feeding in the remaining water channel amidst the Arun Lagoon Project
Scrape hide: 1 great white egret, 1 shelduck, 1 kingfisher, 1 water rail, 5 teal, 4 shoveler, 1 Cetti’s warbler
Reedbed hide: 2 water rail
Sat 6 Nov
Pelican Cove: 2 pochard
Arun Riverlife: 30 Canada geese, 11 greylag, 26 coots, 35 mallards, 13 tufted ducks, 1 little grebe, 1 moorhen, 4 black-headed gulls
Sand martin hide: 1 shelduck, 4 grey herons
Scrape hide: 1 great white egret, 11 shoveler, 2 teal, 5 snipe, 4 wigeon.
Fri 5 Nov
Ramsar hide: 2 grey herons, 1 great white egret
Wetland Discovery: 1 kingfisher, 1 grey heron
Reedbed hide: 1 water rail
Sussex screen: 35 mallards, 2 gadwall
Reedbed boardwalk: 1 robin, 3 mallard, 1 great tit
Pelican cove: 2 pochards
Scrape hide: 3 little egrets
Thurs 4 Nov
Woodland Loop: 4 great tits, 1 goldfinch, 3 blue tits, 1 chaffinch, 3 mallards, 1 moorhen, 1 woodpigeon
Ramsar hide: 1 grey heron eating an eel
Lapwing hide: 1 grey heron
Reedbed hide: 1 snipe
Pelican Cove: 2 pochard
Arun Riverlife: 1 great white egret
