RXwildlife Sightings

Brede High Wood. Sunny days in late spring and summer are wonderful in Brede High Wood especially along the public footpath that follows the transmission lines through Pond Wood and Coneyburrow Wood from TQ806194. Yesterday I saw 9 species of butterfly: brimstone, orange-tip, grizzled skipper (ab. taras), common blue, peacock, green hairstreak, large white, small white and green-veined white but, sadly, no pearl-bordered fritillaries. There are two species of large red cardinal beetles, the common cardinal beetle, Pyrochroa serraticornis, and the ‘notable’ black-headed cardinal beetle, P. coccinea. The latter is a Wealden speciality and regarded as an indicator of ancient woodland. There are also day-flying small yellow underwing moths, Panemeria tenebrata, which often visit flowers of their foodplant, mouse-ear-chickweed. Flowers include the large-flowered bramble Rubus nemorosus, while common spotted orchids are starting to come out.

Salsify, Tragopogon porrifolius, is now at its best along the road by the saltmarsh from the Martello Tower car park to Lime Kiln Cottage. The bright purple dandelion flowers close up after lunch, so go early. Salsify, sometimes seen as a root vegetable, is a Mediterranean plant introduced long ago and first recorded in the wild in 1695.

Today’s warm weather has enabled spring to really get going again and the ditches have been alive with the sound of…..Marsh Frogs “laughing”. Next time you hear one, have a close look at the spectacular cheek pouches that they use to produce the sound.

This morning a Little Egret flew up the valley, there were 15 Black-tailed Godwit on the scrape and the Marsh Harrier was also present. The first fledged warblers were a party of Chiffchaffs feeding in the brambles. At dawn several Turtle Doves were purring but soon became quiet.