The curling brown leaves that still hang on some of the trees shine a rich, bright bronze in the late afternoon sun at the RSPB reserve in West Sussex. Silver birches glow white like rows of tall fluorescent tubes. In the hedgerows, large numbers of wintering thrushes – fieldfares and redwings – feed on the berries dripping from the bushes. They flutter and scatter as I approach along the tree-lined footpath, the fieldfares whirring and rattling noisily.
The path climbs and winds through a small wood. I hear a rustling in the dense brown leaf litter beside the path. I've seen wood mice feeding here before, but this is a bank vole, dark chestnut brown with smaller eyes and ears than a wood mouse. Whirling around in circles among the dry leaves, the vole seeks fallen berries, nuts and decaying fungi. I am able to quietly walk towards it as it twirls and sniffs and runs around, pushing aside the leaves in its frenzied search for food. Voles have relatively poor eyesight, but this one appears to have poor hearing and smell too, as I am crouching just two feet away and still the tiny mammal is entirely focused on its quest.
I walk on to the Hanger viewpoint, overlooking the valley. The distant houses of Pulborough glint in the low sunshine, casting lights across the water of the flooded brooks. A mosaic of pools of water reflects the changing pinks, purples and blues of the sky above. Spotted across the pools are more wintering birds, this time hundreds of water birds: lapwings, teals, pintails, shelducks, shovelers, gadwalls, wigeons. Canada geese honk as they fly in and more ducks swirl in the air. They glide down, softly splashing on the water. Lapwings squeal and the wigeons call insistently to each other. The sky darkens and the pools of water are turning ink-black. The whistles of the wigeons gradually fade out.