The remnant river

The weather forecast for this morning had spoken of a “gentle breeze from the north,” with the temperature mooted to feel higher than the actual 14 Celsius. But that wasn’t how it felt at all, walking northwards by the Arun in the face of a cold and gusty wind. And the feeling was confirmed by the fact that no birds were showing in the riverside hedges or reed beds. Proof absolute this was not a breeze, gentle or otherwise.

Not that the wind would have been an issue for the two species I’d hoped to see. There has been an influx of normally-scarce Cattle Egrets in the last few days, while this is the season when Yellow Wagtails pass through on return migration.

In the event the cattle in the riverside fields to the east and north of Arundel had attracted neither species to feed on the insects they disturb. Most of the Cattle Egrets are still at sites closer to the sea, while Yellow Wagtails also appear to be hugging the coast. Even there, relatively few of the latter have been reported; sadly unsurprising since their numbers have plummeted over the past few years.

I’d drawn an equal blank yesterday when walking by the river south from Arundel to Littlehampton. There were cattle here as well, but only in the water meadows at the start of the route, and these also lacked any attendant wagtails or egrets.

The lack of cattle further south was a reminder that the landscape here is different, the river pursuing an increasingly sinuous course through mostly-drained meadowland as if uncoiling in an attempt to slough off its encasing banks of stone. A pointless attempt because the river that once wandered the plain and millennia ago reached the sea some miles to the east is for now trapped in a built landscape of prison fences and roads, collapsed staithes and concreted banks.

Still, the abandoned landing stages and stone banks are one of the reasons why this stretch of the river attracts so many Common Sandpipers. There were 18 yesterday, sometimes there are more. At high tide they roost on the stone banks, at low tide feed on the mud exposed below the banks, foraging between the timber and stone remains of the staithes, in a decaying intertidal landscape whose shape resembles the upland streams where they nest.