The ladies in the TH tearoom must have thought I looked like feeding up 'cos the Coronation Chicken baguette was enormous!!
On the reserve some new for years, namely Speckled Woods, plenty of Epistrophe elegans and several Neoscia spp on the marsh Marigolds.
The grebes were courting and dancing but weedless; a small twig/piece of reed was all they could muster and, whilst both harriers were present, neither hung around long.
The south facing roadside verges held many hundreds of Andrenas with attendant tricoloured Nomadas and loads of Bee-flies. Edit: The Nomadas appear to be fucata, Painted Nomad bee (below) and are a parasite on A. flavipes which fits with photos taken.
A Tawny Owl was calling about midday from the south end of the boardwalk.
Tuesday
Today, checked out the new (and cavernous!!) Tern Hide, sure to generate a lot of positive and negative comments. If empty all will be well but with only 8-9 seats available with suitable level of elbow rest and movable benches encouraging people to set up tripods in front, it's going to make it a challenge at times. The four, new open-outward windows were dropped with a crash by three different new visitors whilst I was there and there's plenty of scope for pinched fingers upon closing them. From the back of the hide the scope view will be very narrow and the blue-grey tinted glass sucks out a lot of light. The ten vertical panels at the south end provide a lot of light unlike the previous hide but, with no openers, are unusable for photographers. Its only really possible to look through each pane perpendicularly and with bins pressed against the glass. With tint, internal reflections and raindrops on the glass its pretty difficult to use half the hide although Infocus may be able to use the space and the very unusual bi-fold doors enabling the hide to be split in two could be useful for segregating school groups etc. On the bright side the water line is closer for meandering waders and Water Pipits. Shame there are no viewing panels on each side. Lets hope not too many groups rock up and choose to have lunch in here!! And for non-photographers the new viewing platform will be great for scanning the lake.
Watched a couple of hundred Sand Martins plus the odd Swallow, singles of Dunlin and Red Kite, five LRPs, two Redshanks and four Oyks plus plenty of displaying Buzzards and had a chat with Bob and Jackie plus a few visitors including Keith's 'egg lady'!!
Today's highlights easily were the 30+ Bramblings in various plumages around the feeders and elsewhere on the reserve 'wheezzing' away up in the trees in the company of three Lesser Redpolls. No insects of note and indeed not a single butterfly!
A scruffy Roebuck was grazing on the far side.
Plenty of flowering Storksbill on the lichen heath.
Wednesday
At Pulborough pretty much nowt other than two LRPs and five Sand Martins. The lack of any canteen staff and the very cold weather ensured a pre-lunch departure for Arundel. En route, and during the best of the weather, the Coldwaltham Garganey was immediately on show and so much better than the Posbrook bird. Also Raven cronking high overhead with Buzzards and a kite.
At WWT the very welcome soup 'n sandwich (note RSPB - get some staff!!) was tasty although the very long and heavy rain and sleet shower kept most people in the restaurant; it wasn't even possible to get out to the car. Still good value Snipe on site, an inbound Peregrine just prior to the worst of the weather and Kingfisher, confiding Cetti's and a few Med Gulls. Later, a brief respite brought out a singing Willow Warbler and a singing Firecrest barely audible over the noise of chain saws. Good to catch up briefly with Geoff and later 'swapping notes' with MD. Final birds of the day were the seventh Kestrel of the day near home and the umpteenth Buzzard over The Farmhouse.
Thursday
A bit of a soaking at PHP in a brief visit produced just 20+ Sand Martins
P.S
Rather liked Steve Gale's reference to Kierkegaard (everone's favourite Danish existentialist😂) in his recent post:-
"Above all, do not lose your desire to walk. Everyday, I walk into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness, I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it. But by sitting still, and the more one sits still, the closer one comes to feeling ill. Thus if one just keeps on walking, everything will be all right"✔✔
The following also seems appropriate:-
"The greatest hazard of all, losing one's self, can occur very quietly in the world, as if it were nothing at all. No other loss can occur so quietly; any other loss - an arm, a leg, five dollars, a wife etc - is sure to be noticed"✔✔
