The muddy footpath along the woodland edge is submerged in water, and it’s too deep to be passable. I double back and climb the hill through the woods, my feet sinking into the soft floor of wet brown leaves. The track winds back to the main path, and a higher, drier stretch that looks out across the flooded valley. The pearlescent sky is reflected in the silvery greys of the large expanse of water. Grassy islands and banks emerge in the middle and, sitting on the bare trees that rise over them, are crows and birds of prey, including two red kites and two common buzzards.
Thousands of ducks and geese swim and feed. Among a group of paddling Canada geese, shovelers and pintails is a single, newly arrived Bewick’s swan, its head underwater for much of the time as it searches for food. The movements of Sussex’s wintering Bewick’s swans have been fairly well documented. Some individuals have been tracked arriving in the Netherlands from Arctic Russia in November and December, before flying on to arrive at favoured local sites in the south of England, including here in the Arun valley. But the numbers wintering in Sussex have declined in recent years, it is thought because of warmer conditions on the continent further north and the reduction in the overall population.
This weekend, on the 11-12 January, volunteers across north-west Europe will record sightings of Bewick’s and whooper swans for the five-yearly international swan census. As well as providing a clearer picture of population numbers, the coordinated count aims to identify important wintering areas and any changes in the habitats used by the birds.
Two more gleaming white Bewick’s swans, with yellow triangles both sides of the base of their bills, swim into view and together the three birds paddle around and feed. Eventually, two of them climb out of the water on to a raised patch of ground to preen. A slender, brown bird of prey flaps past – a brown female or immature hen harrier, with its distinctive white rump. It flies fast and low, intent on getting somewhere, either to an area of drier grassland where it can hunt, or to its roost for the night.
