We arrived just before opening time (the reserve not the pub) so had a short meander through the woods adjoining the wetlands. We were soon enjoying a party of Long Tailed Tits with attendant Blue and Great Tits plus a very busy Goldcrest darting around in the lower twigs of an Alder. Roger, as eagle-eyed as ever, found us a Tree Creeper. As we made our way over to the centre I set a target of 50 species for the day. My co-leader was a bit dubious due to the chilly, windy conditions but having made a rather optimistic prognostication I felt honour bound to stick to it.

First stop was 10 yards past the visitor centre. This was to watch a high flying Marsh Harrier followed up by a low flying Red Kite. We all stuck together on the way down to the hides and were pleasantly surprised by the large number of Blackbirds in the hedgerows. Richard spotted a Redwing and we stopped to identify a song which was very Song Thrush-like but not quite right. Was it a Redwing singing? No! It was a Song Thrush who clearly hadn’t been trained properly by its father. Roger got a fleeting glimpse of a dashing Sparrowhawk. The feeders at Fattengates Courtyard were full of Great and Blue Tits with a smattering of companions. Here Louis started getting busy taking some of his brilliant photos which you see in this report. Chaffinch, Robin, Goldfinch and Dunnock all dipped in for a quick snack.

After this we split up with Gill, Tony, Helen and Gavin going with Richard while Linda, Roger, Sue, Diana and Louis stuck with me. My group did not at that point realise they were going to be subjected to a test (a gentle one) on duck ID once we got to our first destination of Netley Hide. Hee, hee!! On the way down we started seeing more Redwings and a few Fieldfares but a lot of smaller birds were keeping a low profile. We stopped off at a hide before Netley where Linda found us a pair of Stonechats and we watched more Redwings and Fieldfares feeding on berries where one of us notched up a Linnet. It wasn’t me because I was assiduously checking the water margins for Snipe. I never did find one but luckily the other group did.

At Netley my devious plan of asking people to ID ducks came into fruition. By the time we finished Sue, Linda and Diana were reeling off the species seen; Mallard, Teal, Pintail, Shoveler, Wigeon, Shelduck. Linda, however, blotted her copybook by announcing that Black-Tailed Godwits are boring looking birds. I showed her pictures of the bird in summer plumage and in flight showing the smart black & white wing pattern but don’t think she was convinced. I had equal trouble enthusing the group to search through the large group of gulls to identify different species. I’m not surprised as they were very distant white blobs and I hardly exuded confidence by announcing they were probably Common Gull although they could conceivably at that distance be mistaken for winter plumage Black-Headed Gulls and since the distance made size tricky they just might have been Herring Gulls. Luckily by the end of the morning we had positively ID’d of all three species.

By far the most breathtaking sight of the morning was the Lapwing murmuration. There must have been close on to a thousand birds in the sky. Maybe only Starlings are referred to as murmurators. Lapwings swirl around with languid wingbeats performing a fluid aerial ballet display as caught beautifully in Louis’ photo.

We passed by Richard and the others on the way back towards Little Mead Hide and the visitor centre. We agreed to make a joint list over lunch in an hour’s time. En route we discovered a pair of Egyptian Geese enjoying the company of a group of Rooks feeding in the grass. The folk shooting on the edge of the reserve seemed to have spoked the birds a Little Mead so it was a little bit quiet. We tried in vain to find a White-Tailed Eagle but had some close-up views of a few of the duck species. Lapwings were still flying around with a small following of Starlings. Last time I was at Pulborough I was delighted to see a young boy who was keen as mustard on birdwatching. This time it was a little girl, toting a very expensive looking camera with long lens attachments. She wanted to know if we had found any Snipe. I said no and offered her the use of the scope which she immediately used confidently to search across the full vista in front of her. Mind you she did no better than me at finding a Snipe.

We wended our way back up the slope to lunch in the visitor centre where we compared notes with the others. They had obviously been on the ball and were able to add Meadow Pipits, Pheasant, Jay, Wren, Swan and Cormorant to the tally. Richard was astounded when the number came to 49. He was even more astounded when we remembered Cormorant and Gill remembered Buzzard which gave an outstanding score 0f 51. Some reviving hot food provided us with enough energy to agree to make a short foray into the pines on the heathland to search for Crossbills which had been around the day before. We therefore left en masse by the door leading out onto the picnic area where an RSPB warden was having a chill out. He smilingly pointed out a small bird at the top of a bare bush right by the outside tables. Wow! A red coloured male Crossbill! This was then joined by a yellowy-green female Crossbill. The colours were a bit muted due to us looking straight into the light behind them but it shows quite well in Louis’ photos.

The Crossbills were a lifer for six of the group and on this happy note some folk decided to head for home and some of us did a short heathland walk where a Great Spotted Woodpecker made an appearance. Eventually we also made for home and I put my feet up with a cup of tea and a Mr Kipling’s Apple Pie to watch Final Score. 

Thanks to Louis for all the photos