Latest sightings
Keep in touch with what’s happening at the Pits. Our sightings section contains the most up-to-date reports from visitors. Records are listed by area, with unconfirmed reports in purple. If we don’t state where a sighting was, it may be because we don’t know!
Your sightings are important to us!
Whether the sightings are birds, mammals, insects, spiders, fungi or unusual plant life - we would really like to hear from you. Please help us to keep our records up to date by emailing your sightings to:
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What is where? (click the links for a map)
Hayling Pit/Rudd Pit/The Meadow/Cloudy Pit/Weedy Pit
Heronry Lake including Kingfisher and Hayden Hides
Sailing Lake and Haul Road (the concrete road)
A1 Lakes - view only from footpath along south and east edge
Washout Pit/Moorings - view only from Ouse Valley Way
Island Pit - view only from the southerly part of the eastern shore
Please note: the pits and land north of the nature reserve are part of a private working quarry, busy with machinery and vehicles, and with deep water and unstable sand/clay. There is strictly no access at any time, either from the nature reserve or neighbouring villages. Two areas can be viewed from public footpaths: Washout Pit from the Ouse Valley Way and Island Pit from the southerly end of the eastern shore.
Birds - Bird sightings are now in a web log (blog) format. This will enable us to keep you up to date more quickly.
Click here to show bird sightings at Paxton Pits (opens in a new window)
Insects Click for butterfly and dragonfly information and photos
I predict that this year will be a big one for fleabane. It will also be a good year for ladybirds which are about to emerge and attack the swarms of greenfly we have at present. It has already been good for spotted and pyramidal orchids, but not so good for bee orchids. As long as the drought doesn't continue, it looks like we will have a lot of blackberries too. Dragonflies continue to do well. This month we have a lot of brown hawkers emerging. This is the only large dragonfly with brown wings so it's easy to identify.
I hope we will see a lot of migrant insects too, such as clouded yellows and hummingbird hawk moths.
Mammals/Reptiles/Amphibians
Otters are always about but sightings are rare. Muntjac deer are easily seen on the arable and we have a tame black squirrel at the Hayden Hide. Frogs and Toads are now very scarce here, but newts are thriving. Look in any shallow pond for smooth newts and in the garden pond for great crested newts. This year we have a few frogs, and a hopeful sign in June was the emergence of hundreds of tiny toads around the Hayling Lake.
Other wildlife pages: Migrant movements , What you might see this month, Current yearlist
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