REVIEW OF 2013

Osprey - Bird of the Year

WET WET WET!!! Another year has passed by and yet again the reserves didn't fail to impress most if not all visitors. In terms of a successful breeding year it was nearly a complete washout with many species finding it hard in the continuous wet conditions. most visitors will have guessed that many of the birds on site struggled with no Great-crested Grebe's breeding at Warnham, the Mute Swan's hatched one cygnet which quickly vanished and the Reed Bunting's and Reed Warblers were particularly hard hit with the June floods.

On a brighter note, we now host the biggest Heronry in Sussex at Warnham LNR and hopefully this will continue into 2013 and beyond. Meanwhile at Southwater Country Park two pairs of Mute Swans hatched and successfully raised all but one of their cygnets. We also had breeding GC Grebe, Coot, Moorhen, House Sparrow, Robin, Long-tailed Tit to name but a few. The total number of birds recorded at Warnham LNR in the calendar year was very impressive and we added a few new species which we weren't expecting to do! The year ended on 109 species which for an inland site is fantastic. There were many highlights which were sadly only seen by a few observers such as Oystercatcher, Brambling, Wheatear, Black-tailed Godwit, Whimbrel, Wood Warbler and Pintail.

Most memorable for many observers was our long-staying Osprey which was first seen in August and didn't leave us until October. The beauty of this bird was really shown off by its habitual fishing right in front of the hide! This stunning bird drew visitors from far and wide with birders from Essex, Bedfordshire and even the staff from Dyfi Osprey Project in Wales which featured on SpringWatch paid us a visit!

Alder Kitten

On the moth front it was a very poor year indeed. Many of the common moths such as Large Yellow Underwing, Dark Arches and Hebrew Character were notable only by there low numbers. We did however manage to catch a few new moths for Warnham and we began our trapping efforts at Monkmead Woods which turned up a few nice macros. The best moth of the year for me was the single Alder Kitten which I caught on Mill Meadow at Warnham LNR. This species has been caught at Owlbeech Woods before by SB and continues to spread westwards in the county. The end of year total for Warnham LNR was 246.

Blue-tailed Damselfly

Dragonflies were again present but you guessed it...in small numbers. Sadly Brilliant Emerald was not found on any of our sites this year which is disappointing after the success they seemed to enjoy in 2011. The annual total at Warnham was 19 species which is a bit lower than previous years mainly I believe to the reduced emergence of several species. It was great to see several Downy Emeralds on all the dipping ponds as well as a single emerging from the garden pond too! The Golden-ringed Dragonflies at Owlbeech Woods were seen but very sparsely and we hope to carry out more surveying for them in 2013.

Comma

Once again the butterfly numbers were down on a usual year but the early butterflies such as Brimstone and Small Tortoiseshell seemed to be doing well. There were several records of Painted Lady at Southwater and at Warnham LNR but no Clouded Yellow's were recorded. We did however record butterflies in all months of the year, mainly owing to the warm autumn and winter.