RXwildlife Sightings

Few plants have as evil a reputation as ragwort.  It is very toxic to lifestock and there is legislation requiring it’s control.  Shingle beaches are a habitat where it is beneficial and should be spared the fate of weed control.  It occurs as a natural part of the shingle flora, usually on areas where the beach is a little disturbed. 

The plants above are growing among lichen heath with abundant Cladonia lichens, wood sage Teucrium scorodonia and dodder Cuscuta epithymum.  Although not a rare plant in it’s own right it does produce a very valuable Read the rest of this entry »

Although much of the older shingle vegetation at Dungeness is called lichen heath ling Calluna vulgaris is notably restricted in distribution to one corner of Lydd ranges, where it has been putting on a good show this summer.

This part of the shingle beach has a high sand content which the plant presumably requires to survive and is given close attention by rabbits which keep the plants to a low height.  In keeping with many other examples of true heath this bit of the beach also has a pine plantation - funny how our ancestors had this compulsion to turn purple heath dark green and shady!

Highlights today included a Curlew Sandpiper and five Greenshank on the Quarry, at least eight Knot and a Sanderling on Camber and Common Sandpiper and Ruff on Ternery Pool. Good numbers of hirundines still around today with at 50+ Swallow and Sand Martin over Long Pit, and a few House Martin still in Rye Harbour Village, while passage passerines included a few Willow Warbler, Whitethroat. Wheatear and Yellow Wagtail In addition, the juvenile Arctic Tern was still over the Long Pit early afternoon.

Tues 31st: Black tern, spotted flycatcher, pied flycatcher and raven.

Weds 1st: Red-crested pochard, black-necked grebe, bittern, great white egret, hobby, wryneck, redstart, whinchat, wheatear.

The wryneck was found feeding at the edge of the Lydd footpath behind Hooker’s pits yesterday morning. It is still present today but has moved to the scrubby area near Denge Marsh hide.

Highlights this morning included a Wood Sandpiper, two Common Sandpiper and Bearded Tit at Castle Water, Greenshank on the Quarry and Spotted Redshank on the pools next to Lime Kiln Cottage. In addition a juvenile Arctic Tern was feeding among the Common Terns on Long Pit and at least 50 Yellow Wagtail were foraging along the fence line near the old life-boat house.

Plenty of passerine activity on the Beach Reserve and Harbour Farm today, with around 100 Yellow Wagtail foraging along the beach road, several Wheatear near the river mouth, about 100 Sand Martin feeding over the pits and pools, and at least three Whinchat along the fence near Harbour Farm Barns. In addition, the Quarry held a Greenshank, three Knot and a Little Egret while a Green Sandpiper, a Snipe and two Grey Partridge were seen from the Crittall Hide (Ternery Pool)

There seems to have been quite a bit of migrant activity over the last few days, with several species of immigrant turning up in my moth trap. The majority of these seem to be the (largish) micro Rush Veneer, with quite a few White-point (which probably also breeds on this part of the south coast), Dark Sword-grass and Silver Y. Highlight however was the attractive micro Marbled Yellow Pearl (Evergestis extimalis) another scarce resident more usually found as a migrant in southern Britain.

Marbled Yellow Pearl

The tides are just right now for catching the roosting Curlew on the shingle ridges of West Beach before they disperse at dawn, 380 left this morning, a few Whimbrel were also present. Late news from saturday afternoon was an Osprey flying over Flat Beach and then the shore heading west. 

A peacefull and enjoyable visit to Bixley Wood yesterday provided a great selection of hoverflies, I found 24 species along the pathways and woodland clearings, several were new to me but one that stood out was Eriozona syrphoides. Information available on this large bumblebee mimic is several years old and a rather tedious trawl through the web found nothing new. It was first reported from Snowdonia in 1968 and recent records are spread acrosss northern and western Britain, I can’t find any reference to records in East Sussex? I can’t believe that such a big and distinctive hoverfly has gone unnoticed. Anyway, additional highlights were provided by Sericomyia silentis, Ferdinandea cuprea and Baccha elongata. Sadly it was a bad day for taking pictures, the best of the bunch are below.

Large bumblebee mimic Eriozona syrphoides

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Although rather distant, a small sandpiper with a short straight bill and a white rump was seen by Bob Greenhalf, Mary B. and me this morning near the hide at Castle Water. Definitely not a Curlew Sand, even less Green or Wood. We lost it after a few minutes but it could still be about, so worth looking out for.