We’ve been
to the RSPB reserve at Pulborough Brooks once before. This time we had a room
booked in a tavern in nearby Bramber so we could take our time and stay until
the dusk closing time.
We saw goldcrest, nuthatch, blue tit, great
tit, robins, chaffinch, a green woodpecker pecking at the floor right in front
of one of the hides, teal, wigeon, shelduck, geese, handsome redwing, fallow deer and noble
fallow stag, shoveller, goofy snipe, curlew, lapwings, long-tailed tits at the bus
stop, ruffless ruffs, no birds of prey unfortunately, no bullfinch, no
crossbill, but out of all the birds we saw, two birds stood out and both of
them emerged right at the end of the day.
The sun was setting and it was becoming
difficult to tell the birds from the stray leaves and cones in the trees. I
heard a loud clear song different from all the robins and the incessant great
tits whose songs filled the air. It was like a blackbird in its squawk-like
tone but the repeated phrases were shorter: little riffs and arpeggios, liet-motifs, they were more enigmatic, less melodic than the blackbird. I found the
bird in the binoculars. It was a song thrush clearly on display on an
outstanding branch, showing himself for an evening performance. His colours are
humble browns, plump with a creamy speckled belly. I’ve never seen one before
or heard one in real life. Such a proud song, I stood and listened for a while, he was still going when we left.
.JPG)
We went back into the visitor’s centre which
was just closing and the assistants were relieved to get their binoculars back.
A few other lingering visitors were looking through the binoculars and scopes
out of the big viewing window. A little chicken sized bird waddled out from the
reeds and the expert said we were lucky to be seeing it. It was a water rail,
almost a chicken, almost a wader, tentatively pecking on the ground, just long
enough for us to get a view through one of the scopes before we were ushered
out of the visitors centre so they could close up and go home. The water rail
makes a noise like a pig snuffling apparently, but we didn’t get to hear it. It's blue-grey belly and orangey-red bill make a satisfying exotic combination, but it comes across as a slightly unfortunate bird what with the pig-noise it has been lumbered with, the awkward chicken legs and the inelegant name. It seems content for sure, but that arouses the sympathy all the more.
