RXwildlife Sightings

Rye Harbour Nature Reserve. Hairy buttercup, Ranunculus sardous, is the main buttercup species in flower now on the Rye Harbour Nature Reserve and at many other places along the coast. It is an annual of damp coastal pastures, poached pond edges and similar places and generally restricted to thin turf or disturbed areas. It is similar to creeping buttercup, Ranunculus repens, but is a rather brighter, deeper yellow and has turned down sepals under the flowers. In some places at Rye there is enough of it to make a landscape feature and it is very popular with the common beetle Oedemera lurida (see photo).

The day-flying speckled yellow moth is on the wing in many places where its foodplant, wood-sage, grows. There have been recent reports from Brede High Woods and Beckley Woods, but there will be many other places in the Rye Bay area where there are open rides and coppiced areas in heathy woods.

Barnacle Goose, Peregrine, Dunlin, Sanderling, Common Tern, House Martins, Swifts, Spotted Flycatcher

With a warm night the moth trap was at last relatively busy. There were about 150 moths of 48 species. Migrant activity was evident with several Silver Y, a Vestal, a Diamond-backed Moth and an Orange Footman. Many species made their first appearance of the year including Scorched Wing, Pale Tussock, Flame Carpet, V-pug and the very smart Elephant Hawk-Moth.

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.

At Pett Pools, Greylags and Canadas have produced one brood each of new goslings over the last couple of days. These are the first since a single brood of Greylags in mid-April.
In Winchelsea, Spotted Flycatchers have territories in the churchyard and at the school.

A pretty good morning for the Lime Kiln Cottage moth trap today, with 67 individuals of 19 species. The majority of specimens belonged to three species, Shuttle-shaped Dart, Common Swift and Lime-speck Pug , while the best catch of the morning was several specimens of the rare micro moth Ethmia bipunctella (below). The larvae of this species feed on the flowers and leaves of Viper’s Bugloss, and while nationally it is very rare, E. bipunctella is not an uncommon species at Rye Harbour.
Other species this morning included Bee Moth, Blood-vein, Rustic Shoulder Knot and the first Large Yellow Underwing and Common Wainscot of the year.