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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.

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