One oystercatcher pair looks to be sitting on a nest on an island from the Sand martin hide. The pair or one seem to be mobbing any curious predatory crows. On the Arun Riverlife lagoon the kingfishers are still really active this week – were still wai
21 May 2024
A tawny owlet started branching on Mon 13 May from its box on an island in Wetlands Discovery. Tawny owls leave the nest to scramble around branches before they can fly. This is the first time that tawny owls have used one of our nest boxes at this end of
15 May 2024
A curlew wearing coloured leg rings was spotted by WWT wardens from the Ramsar hide on Wed 8 May in the afternoon. It had been spotted by visitors from the Sand martin hide as well. Some of the nesting black-headed gulls swooped it a few times, in case it
9 May 2024
There are plenty of opportunities for “cute” wildlife photos across WWT Arundel's site now that spring is underway. There are at least 5 greylag geese pairs with goslings in tow and similar number of Canada geese pairs. The geese frequent the picnic a
30 April 2024
The first moth survey of the season only attracted 3 moths and a female minotaur beetle, due to the cold temperatures. We did have a lovely emperor moth sitting on the access gate for staff to the Pelican Cove exhibit on Tues 23 on Monday morning. Cuckoo
24 April 2024
Summer migrants are returning, with the songs of sedge and reed warblers filling the reedbeds. Cetti’s warblers are around as well and several black caps and a lesser whitethroat seen over the past few days. The sand martins have return returned and
18 April 2024
A female mallard with 6 ducklings in tow was spotted on the Wet Grassland on Monday. Moorhen chicks have also been spotted on a ditch behind our duckery. A pair of pergrines have been spotted on the Offham hangar, likely the pair that annually nest on the
29 March 2024
Reserve Supervisor Rosie flushed up a bittern about 5m away from the front of the Scrape hide this morning (Thurs 21 March) while working in the area. Kingfishers have been using the nest hole 5 in the Arun Riverlife nest bank again this year. There has b
21 March 2024
Two white tailed eagles have been back over the Reserve a few times this month. The pair were flying up and down the Offham hangar and over the car park and visitor centre on both March 2 and March 4. A kingfisher male has been very active on the nesting
11 March 2024
A male kingfisher has been inspecting nest holes at the Kingfisher bank. Regular visitor Mike Jerome took these lovely photos. We recently removed some trees near the kingfisher nesting bank. Our Reserve team manage this wet grassland habitat at Arun Rive
28 February 2024
It has been great to see so many snipe back in the fen cut in front of the Ramsar hide this past week! A male kingfisher has been investigating the nesting holes on Kingfisher bank on Arun Riverlife, a pair were spotted feeding at Scrape hide Tuesday.
21 February 2024
A bittern flew across the reedbed channel in front of a boat safari trip on Fri 2 Feb - World Wetlands day - giving some of our visitors a real treat! We had our first oystercatcher of the season, spotted between Ramsar and Sand martin hides on Tues 6
7 February 2024
Our onsite bittern sightings from the Scrape hide peaked on Friday 19 January when a Reserve Warden spotted two bitterns, within just minutes of each other on opposite side of the reedbed there.A sea eagle (also known as a white tailed eagle) was spotted
24 January 2024
A bittern has been spotted regularly from the Scrape hide over the past week!The bittern was first spotted by reserve staff and a regular visitor last Fri 12 Jan. It has been seen at least once a day. It took to the air on Sat 13 Jan and was snapped by v
17 January 2024
We had visitors tell us they had seen hen harriers from the Scrape hide during the afternoon roost on the weekend. Our Reserve team knows there are three female hen harriers in the Arun Valley this winter but had no staff confirmed sightings of the birds
11 January 2024