RXwildlife Sightings

I’ve just spent a brilliant day with my class of 7/8-year-olds at the Weald Woodfair, which takes place at the Bentley Wildfowl & Motor Museum near Uckfield.
If you are at all interested in the history, management, wildlife, products and future of our East Sussex woodlands (and since you’re reading this page, I guess you must be) then this represents amazing value for the £6 entrance fee.
There are guys in hard hats abseiling down trees and other in floppy hats carving knobbly sticks, there are heavy horses and macho machines, timber framed buildings, charcoal burners, craftsmen making beautiful furniture and sweating historians puffing fearsome flames out of a clay bloomery…..
Lots more Eating Opportunities this time, wafting appetising scents among the sawdust.
For children, there are great hands-on activities including wood-carving, learning about how to skin big animals, making bird feeders (with our own Rye Bay Countryside Project) and……playing at being pigs with The Shedman (don’t ask…go and look).
For me, cheap thrill of the day was going up in a 48m cherry picker, way above the canopy with a great broad panorama across to the Downs (better than looking down anyway..)
I think I’ve made my point: it’s on all weekend 09.30-17.00
More info on

www.eastsussex.gov.uk/woodfair

Walking along the shoreline at low tide this morning there seemed to be many Sea Potatoes scatterd on the mud. Although these are rounded you can clearly see the 5 divisions on the “shell” that give away its relation to starfish and sea urchins. About 5cm long.

The scarce snout-faced hoverfly, Rhingia rostrata, is now quite frequent on late flowers in our area, especially red and purple ones. Formerly regarded as ‘vulnerable’ it is now classified as ‘notable’ and occurs mainly on woodland fringes. It can be distinguished from its commoner congener, Rhingia campestris, by the absence of a black line down the sides of the abdomen and the shorter snout. Where it breeds is still a mystery, but R. campestris has larvae in cow dung and R. rostrata probably favours dung or carrion. One theory is that it might patronise badger dung if anyone would like to try any breeding experiments.

The high tide Wader roost has moved from Shore Ridges to Flat Beach over the past couple of days,
today 107 Ringed Plover,233 Dunlin,11 Knot and a few Sanderling could be found.
Also using Flat Beach today 750+ Lapwing, 265 Golden Plover, 7 Grey Plover and a Whimbrel.
Highlights since Monday have been 1000+ House Martin,2000+ Swallow,180 Meadow Pipit,6 Grey Wagtail,32 Siskin, all flying over Beach Reserve or Lime Kiln Cottage.
Raptors have included Marsh Harrier, Peregrine, Merlin and Hobby.

Another small but varied arrival of migrants with the main highlight being a very elusive (and early) Yellow-browed Warbler in the trapping area. Other notable birds included four Buzzards, four Marsh Harriers, a Merlin, a Long-eared Owl, a Firecest and a “continental” Coal Tit whilst overall numbers were provided by 1000 each of Swallows and House Martins, five Grey Wagtails, 15 Robins, six Lesser Whitethroats, six Blackcaps, 50 Chiffchaffs and 150 Siskins.
A Balearic Shearwater was also seen at sea.
David Walker (from DBO website)

The conditions were exquisitely mirror-like, with plumes of mist rising from the surface, golden light on the trees and the stillness only broken by a gibbering trio of Hobbies and the howl of Sunday motor-bikes.
Water levels are not as low as I’d anticipated – the causeway is still covered and the lake continuous, but enough mud is exposed at the edges to provide loafing areas for the birds and easy access & visibility for me.
These conditions revealed the highest-yet number of Moorhens (36 cf previous highest this year: 11). Coot were numerous, but the count of 41 was similar to the last one in June (38) so I guess they must be the breeding birds & offspring. The same cannot be said for the 40 Tufted Ducks, however, which must have come in with the Gadwall (11), Teal (45) & Mallard (22). Just 2 Little & 4 GC Grebes suggested that young had either flown or been predated, and the Mute Swans do not seem to have bred this year. Read the rest of this entry »

On Ternery Pool: 1 Ruddy Shelduck, 2 Little Egret, 1 Green Sandpiper, 735 Lapwing, 8 Bar-tailed Godwit.
Along the shore at low-tide: 9 Knot, 9 Grey Plover, 44 Ringed Plover.
On Flat Beach: 154 Golden Plover, 76 Dunlin, 4 Curlew, 150 Meadow Pipit, 5 Wheatear.
In addition, over 350 House Martin overflew the Beach Reserve during the morning, while a Hobby was present on Harbour Farm.

A large movement of Meadow Pipits and Siskins was taking place, with hundreds of birds involved in an almost continuous stream. Many of the former were dropping down into fields of recently cut rape at Church Farm and small flocks of birds were on the move everywhere one looked on the horizon.
Siskins were also feeding in willows and alders.
Few other species involved in the movement - just 1 Tree Pipit - but a flock of c100 Linnets in the rape field.
Kestrel, Sparrowhawk, Hobby & Red-tailed Hawk in the area.

Highlights from the Beach Reserve today have been Marsh Harrier, Merlin,14 Knot,7 Grey Plover,1 Little Stint, 37 Siskin inflight over Flat Beach and a Redstart along Shore Ridges.

During a survey of grasshoppers and crickets this year, I have become increasingly interested in ground-hoppers. These insects, like tiny grasshoppers, are usually associated with damp, sparsely vegetetated habitats, often on the margins of lakes and ditches. As you might expect, habitats of this sort occur in abundance at Rye Harbour, and the reserve hosts all three British species. Nationally, the commonest of the three is (surprise surprise) Common Ground-hopper, followed by Slender, and Cepero’s, which is the rarest and largely confined to the south coast, though there are more records of this species at Rye Harbour than the other two combined!

Clockwise from top left: Common Ground-hopper, Slender Ground-hopper, Cepero’s Ground-hopper