Skip to main content

Arun south of Arundel

The morning is cool and the atmosphere heavy after rain, but it is dry and there is hardly any wind on the walk down the Arun to the south of Arundel. Wind is the main enemy of the birder, far worse than any but the heaviest rain.

There is more bird activity than in recent days, in some cases helped by the low tide, with five Common Sandpipers feeding skittishly on the sections of exposed mud. Two Common Sandpipers wintered here, but they left weeks back and this number of birds are almost certainly on passage.

There are other waders - a single Redshank, two Oystercatchers, and several Lapwings - but these have been here a while. So too has the drake Gadwall loafing watchfully on the river.

More recently arrived are the Reed Warblers, at least six of them singing urgently from the reedy ditches and reed beds where only two were calling a couple of days ago. But Sedge Warbler numbers remain low. They have been tardier arriving this year, numbers down on the same period of 2017, and there has been a bare trickle of other warblers.

Swallow numbers have begun to increase, and today they are flying low. The largest party comprises nine birds accompanied by two House Martins; at least as far as I can tell in the confusion of their flight. Some birds are scouring low over the water, others weaving around the riverside banks and hedges on this brief feeding point on their journey northwards.

The sun breaks through the cloud and they begin to spiral upwards, giving the opportunity to count them. But that intention ends with the sight of a large white heron flying southwards. Too big to be a Little Egret, the yellow bill and black feet of a Great White Egret are obvious as it flies past.

They’re not so rare now, in fact one flew over the same spot in the opposite direction a couple of months back. But still a bird to savour as it powers its way across the water meadows.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

July 4: Arun South

It’s already hot in spite of the easterly breeze, and the river is sluggish after days without rain. The grass is parched yellow, even the reeds in the ditches wilting. The gull loaf is building up on the stone-lined sections of the river bank and 55 Herring Gulls and 78 Black-headed Gulls have been joined by two Great Black-backed Gulls and single Mediterranean, Common and Lesser Black-backed Gulls. All of them are inactive. Even the Great Black-backs make only occasional forays, scolded when they do so by a pair of vigilant Oystercatchers. A dozen Lapwings dot the muddy stretches of the river’s edge, standing stock still before indulging in seemingly inconsequential runs. Much more active are the seven Common Sandpipers, their numbers up from only three a few days ago, while a single Little Ringed Plover and a calling Greenshank may be harbingers of other less common passage waders in the weeks ahead. There are probably no passage passerines yet. Sedge Warblers and Reed Warbl...
Post a Comment
Read more

Warden of the marsh

The relationship between birds and places is complex, and no more so than where bird calls are concerned. This morning’s walk along the river path has been unmemorable so far. The wintering birds are mainly gone and most of the migrants have yet to arrive, while the keening wind means those birds that are here have sought cover. Not only has the walk been unmemorable but unpleasant as well. The sheet of mud masquerading as a path had been improving, but the overnight rain has left it as treacherous and slippery as before. The dog tugs morosely at a clod of sodden earth, trying to turn it into a rabbit, before giving me a less than friendly look. Home, the look says, and I’m inclined to agree as the wind eases but rain begins to fall in its place. Then a Common Redshank calls as it takes off and flies down the river, and for an instant I’m transported to the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve in Singapore. The mudflats overlooked by the Aerie Tower are swarming with Marsh Sandpipers...
Post a Comment
Read more

Palimpsest

The break in the weather has been spectacular but brief, the sere grass barely acknowledging the hours of wind and rain. But the temporary end of weeks of hot, dry weather has had one lasting effect -- the abrupt disappearance of Mediterranean Gulls from the loaf by the Arun. During the three-week period to late July the rings of 20 colour-banded Mediterranean Gulls were read; the records summarised elsewhere. But now the influx has ended and only one or two of the gulls remain. With return wader passage by the river also weak this year -- the usual Common Sandpipers, Lapwings and Oystercatchers only rarely joined by other shorebirds – another visit to the riverside falls victim to the lure of the high spaces of Arundel Park. Enclosed in the late eighteenth century, the downs forming the 454 hectares of the New or Great Park were moulded into a patchwork of pasture and woodland. Plantations dot the high points of the land, while hangers cling to the flanks of the dry valleys that...
Post a Comment
Read more