arunwild

No-one steps in the same river twice, so Heraclitus said. And in similar fashion no walk by the river is the same twice, its shifting water only part of a constant flux of activity. Some of that flux is more apparent than real, especially where resident birds are concerned. Two days back no wrens were recorded on the walk, whereas there had been three the previous day and three today. They were almost certainly there, but sheltering from the fierce wind. Then again, today is breezy but the wrens and most other birds aren’t in hiding. Each day is different, especially where non-resident birds are concerned. Reed Warblers are still present, though numbers are down with many of the breeding birds now gone. Meanwhile Willow Warblers and Whitethroats are moving through in numbers, today conspicuous at the tops of bushes where insects congregate. Tomorrow there may be more, or less, or a different mix of species, as they move through as part of a vast and weather-dependent front.

The break in the weather has been spectacular but brief, the sere grass barely acknowledging the hours of wind and rain. But the temporary end of weeks of hot, dry weather has had one lasting effect -- the abrupt disappearance of Mediterranean Gulls from the loaf by the Arun. During the three-week period to late July the rings of 20 colour-banded Mediterranean Gulls were read; the records summarised elsewhere. But now the influx has ended and only one or two of the gulls remain. With return wader passage by the river also weak this year -- the usual Common Sandpipers, Lapwings and Oystercatchers only rarely joined by other shorebirds – another visit to the riverside falls victim to the lure of the high spaces of Arundel Park . Enclosed in the late eighteenth century, the downs forming the 454 hectares of the New or Great Park were moulded into a patchwork of pasture and woodland. Plantations dot the high points of the land, while hangers cling to the flanks of the dry valleys