The early morning rain has lifted but there is still damp in the air. Konik ponies watch me between their mouthfuls of grass as I make my slow way through the dark, water-logged mud. The small, brown horses – descendants of the wild Tarpans that once roamed Europe – are a hardy, self-sufficient breed, perfectly adapted to grazing wetlands. They are used increasingly by conservation bodies in the UK, as here by the Sussex Wildlife Trust, to control young trees, shrubs and plants that would otherwise grow and dominate habitat like this. The ponies’ grazing clears channels and pools, opens up patches of grass, and creates new opportunities for diverse species of plants, insects, birds and animals to thrive.
Small birds are flitting from one alder to the next. I stop and watch a great tit and a chaffinch work through the branches. The great tit inspects each twig and growth of lichen for insects or buds, shifting its head from side to side to get a better view, and, having found none, it moves on. The birds carry on, again and again looking, and failing, to find something to eat. At last the great tit seems to find some morsel, but it doesn’t rest – it flies off in its search for food. Further along, flocks of larger birds sit in the tree tops. A group of fieldfares are on one, a group of redwings on the next. They whirr and rattle in alarm as I pass them to get a better view of the ducks on the main water.
I hear a burst of loud, profane whistles from a Cetti’s warbler. I look and look, but fail to find it. I’m about to turn away when there’s movement, low down. A small, dark brown bird darts from the bottom of one bulrush to the next: the warbler too is looking for food. I watch it launch from one plant to another, stopping to cock its round-tipped, reddish-brown tail up and down, before it finally drops out of sight.
The rain is falling again. Two small snipe fly in circles overhead as I walk back to the road.
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