Williamson's Weekly Nature Notes

THERE are eleven different swamp warblers in Europe. We in the UK have six of them breeding and normally four of these in Sussex. Now is the moment to hear them as the breeding season is soon over.
By The Newsroom
Published 27th May 2009, 15:07 BST
Updated 8th Jun 2018, 04:32 BST

One of my most treasured moments in life was waking up at dawn on the Norfolk Broads and hearing all the sedge warblers, reed warblers; and grasshopper warblers chattering and churring away through the open port-hole of the Medina sailing boat moored up on Wroxham Broad.

Today since I live in Sussex I just go along to the banks of the Arun and have the same experience. The Arun loops at South Stoke or even here in my photo at Greatham Bridge I sometimes hear the reed warbler.

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More convenient is to go along to the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust collection at Arundel or the RSPB centre at Pulbrough Brooks. At both places you can enjoy hard paths and cups of tea if you have given up sliding about in the mud of the river banks.

You'll also find reed warblers in practically any of the Sussex reedbeds some of which are quite narrow strips along ditches through farmland draining the Sussex Plain around Barnham and Pagham.

For full feature see West Sussex Gazette June 3

Related topics:NatureEuropeSussex