A Long-tailed Duck was loafing offshore during the morning and there were 17 Mediterranean Gulls at the Patch. The Black-winged Stilt was still present at Dengemarsh throughout the day but was out of view for most of the time.
Dave Walker (from DBO website)
The picture below is of a worker hornet, Vespa crabro, taken in Sedlescombe last autumn. As well as their large size (about 2cm long) the yellow head behind the eyes and the overall brown and yellow colour, with little black are distinctive. The even larger queens are a noticeable feature of the Rye Bay countryside at the moment, but the workers should soon be quite common. In my experience they visit flowers mainly to catch other insects, but they are quite fond of sap runs in trees.
This afternoon at Castle Water:
2 Greensandpiper
1 Little Ringed Plover
283 Lapwing
73 Mute Swan
51 Tufted Duck
6 Shoveler
100+ Black Headed Gull
5 Mediterranean Gull
18 Lesser Black Backed Gull
120+ Herring Gull
40+ Common Tern
5 Sandwich Tern
Sam
I found a blue shieldbug, Zicrona caerulea, yesterday - the first I have seen. This attractive, but rather scarce, species (see picture) has been recorded from the Rye Bay area, though mine was at Mayfield. The bug lives largely or entirely on larvae of Altica flea beetles (see other picture) which are common on willowherbs, heathers and other plants. Interestingly they have evolved to be almost exactly the same colour, so maybe when the unsuspecting beetle larva sees the bug approaching it thinks it is only mum or dad.
A recent appeal in the Rye and Battle Observer papers has brought in many new records of hornets in our area. This species only started moving into our area about five years ago and now seems to be widespread and abundant, though more records are always welcome. The queens are huge, and very distinctive, but worker hornets can be confused with queens of the middle wasp, Dolichovespula media. This is also fairly widespread in our area, though it seems to me less common now than the hornet. I did check last year with a hornet expert in Germany and he says our local insects are the British subspecies rather than the mainland European, so they must have spread here from areas to the north and west.
The picture shows a normal worker wasp next to a queen hornet. The latter was brought to me already dead by an acquaintance last year.
Hornets are not aggressive and will not do any harm if left alone
The Wader Pool attracted 22 Redshank with 27 also on Flat Beach.
At Ternery Pool one Roseate Tern plus another 15 Redshank.
Along the Shore 200+ Sandwich Tern were roosting. And an Arctic Skua was chasing Common Terns offshore.
Hobby was also seen at Harbour Farm and Long Pit.
Sam