Pulborough round-up, 11th-20th April

Somehow it's been over a week already since my last post on here. Probably an indication that things are beginning to liven up a bit at last!

Dawn at The Hanger

I've added eight year ticks in ten days since the Bramblings last week, taking my Pulborough year total to a respectable 123. First up on in thick fog on Saturday morning I decided to shun the hides and viewpoints in favour of a quick jaunt up to the heath in the hope the vis would improve (it eventually did at around 11:00 - just as I was about to head home!). After a circuit around The Clump there appeared to be little of note until a familiar song alerted me to a Tree Pipit perched in one of the Oaks up there - a Pulborough tick for me and apparently not as common here as I had perhaps assumed given the available habitat.

When the fog did eventually clear on Saturday it enabled the first proper look across the North Brooks of the weekend which, evidently, was Spoonbill-less for the first time in several days. 
No such problems finding the now regular Great White Egret even in the fog though as it showed down to just a few metres in front of Winpenny Hide, again favouring the local newts its seems. Reports from various other birders and RSPB volunteers suggest there are still two different birds frequenting the site, with one on the Mid Brooks late this afternoon.

The Spoonbill on the North Brooks on its last day

Sunday saw the arrival of a pair of Avocets and the first Whimbrel of the year. The Avocet pair stayed until Thursday, and were often seen copulating, but were gone by today. The Whimbrel stayed until at least Tuesday but on Thursday morning I instead found a Curlew from Winpenny Hide which flew off calling loudly. It was good to hear the first Cuckoo of the year the same morning, which was still around again today, seemingly somewhere between Hail's View and West Mead but proving characteristically ventriloquial!

Whimbrel - photo by Gary Trew

Avocets

Warbler numbers have gradually been creeping up, with noticeably more Blackcaps around, at least three Lesser Whitethroats, a few Sedge Warblers and my first Common Whitethroats at last today, with three favouring the bushes along the footpath between Wiggonholt and Pulborough village. There are perhaps three singing male Nightingales on site now that I've heard myself, with the one near Fattengates proving to be the most reliable performer. Hirundines still seem rather thin on the ground, though a little flurry of at least three House Martins, three Swallows and two Sand Martins through in the rain on Sunday was good to see. Just three Swallows through from Hail's View today though during my almost six hour visit, plus singles of House and Sand Martin over the garden. It was great to finally catch up with a Pulborough Wheatear today though - my first of the spring here - with one very distant from Hail's View and another on a fence post out on the North Brooks.

Most unexpected during the week was the very vocal flock of 30 Mediterranean Gulls which flew north over the Brooks/village at dawn on the 18th - I was just getting in my car at the time but managed to glimpse them for a few seconds between buildings and trees. Colin Nicholson also saw them pass over the Brooks, and interestingly Mark McManus had 35 take off from Amberley Wildbrooks and head the same way an hour later - same birds doing a loop or another flock perhaps? There's certainly been good numbers moving along the coast this week.

Sadly I missed the Wood Sandpiper found by George Kinnard yesterday. Indeed, wader numbers were particularly low today aside from a single Dunlin and the resident Redshanks and Lapwings.

The mini heatwave and run of southerlies seems to be coming to an end for now, so it'll be interesting to see what the next few days bring - no doubt something mega will turn up as I'm off to Spain tomorrow until Wednesday!

Incidentally, things have been getting rather more interesting on the nocmig side of things too, with garden firsts of Curlew and Water Rail over recently along with the second record of Common Scoter, but more on that in another blog post.