Kingfishers fledge & martins move through
The juvenile kingfishers seem to have fledged this week – as a result we have been seeing a lot of kingfisher air traffic at the Sand martin hide and on the Arun Riverlife lagoon.
Visitors are reporting 3-4 sightings during their stops in at Sand Martin hide. Sightings of juvenile kingfishers with white tipped beaks and grey legs have been verified by WWT staff. Senior Reserve warden Emma Jacob photographed this adult kingfisher enjoying the rain on Tuesday morning.
House martins have been moving through in large numbers, especially after the rain on Tuesday and Wednesday. They were hawking insects over the Scrape and Ramsar hides in multitudes in the afternoons.
This is not a list of all wildlife onsite. It is the recorded wildlife sightings by WWT staff noted on the morning walk around, with different areas recorded on different days.
Wed 17 Aug
Scrape hide: c50 house martins, 2 mute swans, 2 teal, 19 mallards, 1 gadwall, 2 wood pigeon, 1 greylag goose
Ramsar & Sand martin hide: 4 swallows, 1 adult and 2 juvenile kingfishers.
Tues 16 Aug
Ramsar & Sand Martin hides; 2 mure swans, 1 mallard, 6 gadwall, 1 teal, 2 coots, 3 mandarin ducks, 1 kingfisher, 1 little egret, 3 moorhens, 2 tufted ducks, 55 black-headed gulls, 2 oystercatchers and a chick
Sun 14 Aug
Wetland Discovery: 2 kingfishers, 2 goldfinches, 5 mallards, 1 emperor dragonfly
Ramsar hide: 1 cattle egret
Sand martin hide: 1 oystercatcher, 1 brown hawker dragonfly
Scrape hide: 2 house martins, 1 kingfisher, 1 emperor dragonfly.
Sat 13 Aug
Arun Riverlife lagoon: 7 coots, 1 mute swan
Sand martin hide: 1 oystercatcher
Scrape hide: 5 teal, 3 grey herons, 1 emperor dragonfly
Sand martin & Ramsar hide: c 50 house martins
Friday 12 Aug
Woodland Loop: 15 mallards, 1 mandarin duck, 2 moorhen, 4 blue tits, 3 great tits, 2 chaffinches
Sand martin hide: 1 kingfisher, 1 cormorant
Lapwing hide: 1 grey heron
Arun Riverlife: 1 kingfisher
Ramsar hide: 42 cattle egrets
Scrape hide: 1 little egret, 2 oystercatchers.
