RXwildlife Sightings

On every Birdrace or Crawl or Big Day or whatever you call it, there are some birds that ought to be there but just don’t appear. There are traditionally reclusive species like LS Woodpecker but even common and widespread ones can be exasperatingly hard to find, vanishing just for the day from nest sites and favourite haunts. In addition, this is the time of year when long-stayers decide to head north - usually on a Friday evening. However long your daylist may be, there are always humiliating gaps representing Birds of Shame.
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The weekend produced a pleasing array of birds including a long-eared owl glimpsed briefly at the Hanson ARC site, a female red-backed shrike on the return trail and a bittern flying north over the reserve.  Other species of particular note included marsh harrier, hobby, whinchat, spotted flycatcher and lesser whitethroat.  Late in the afternoon three male and one female garganey were spotted from the Hanson ARC hide.

One of the indicators species used by the UK Phenology network is the flowering of Hawthorn. Many parts of the UK had seen flowering of Hawthorn (also called May) by the end of April. However, at Rye Harbour, right on the coast, with chilly sea breezes, I saw my first flowers open only yesterday.

On the Beach Reserve this morning, five Avocet and three Little Ringed Plover were present, as well as a Whimbrel, and the usual Wheatear, Yellow Wagtail and Grey Partridge. The shore held one Black-tailed godwit, six Bar-tailed Godwit, seven Curlew, four Grey Plover and a Knot, while 250+ Common Scoter were on the sea close inshore. 90 Swift were over a cold Long Pit.