RXwildlife Sightings

Just a reminder that the Fair will take place on Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 of August from 9am to 5pm.  A great day out for all the family.  Stalls include: wildlife art and photography, wood turining and other crafts, cards and gifts, local conservation organisations, outdoor clothing and natural history books. Artists and photographers exhibiting their work include Stephen Message, Dave Featherbe, Norman McCanch, Darren Chaplin and Ian Kent.  Plus: optics demo, free guided walks, pond-dipping and lots more.  Admission free to all.

Sightings of interest during the past few days include: red-crested pochard (female), marsh harrier, hobby, whimbrel, black-tailed godwit, litle stint,common, green and wood sandpipers, greenshank and little gull.

The scrape and the flooded grassland at Carter’s Flood are both beginning to dry out. This has however made both areas attractive to waders. On Sunday the species present included two Ruff, nine Green Sandpiper, a Wood Sandpiper, two Common Sandpiper and twelve Snipe. The run of Garganey records continues with one on the scrape, there having been a maximum of six at the end of last week.

The moth trap is still proving interesting with several unusual migrants. The last couple of nights have produced our fourth Tree-lichen Beauty of the year, several Bordered Straw and a Dewick’s Plusia.

Further interest was provided by a White Admiral, the first on the reserve for several years.

Three Balearic Shearwaters, a Greenshank and an Arctic Skua flew west during the morning whilst a juvenile Mediterranean Gull and three Yellow-legged Gull were feeding at the Patch.

David Walker (from DBO website)

While out on the Reserve on Sunday I came across another colony of Small Red-eyed Damselfly on Castle Farm, which is now the third known site within the SSSI, a male Emerald and Blue-tailed were also present.

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This white admiral (which is scarce at Hastings Country Park) was present along Barley Lane yesterday afternoon.

The sun-lit track was alive with butterflies including many gatekeepers and holly blues as well as smaller numbers of speckled wood, painted lady, red admiral, meadow brown, small skipper, large white, green-veined white, common blue, comma, and another country park rarity - a silver-washed fritillary.

A walk around Castle Water this morning found many butterflies in the lee of willows near the viewpoint, escaping the very strong winds. In the hot sun most seemed to be keeping their wings closed and with patience it was possible to get the camera very close.

Painted Ladies were common…

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The paths and south facing banks of short grass around Hastings Country Park offer excellent opportunities to watch and photograph many of the solitary wasps that are out in numbers at the moment. Different species of wasp specialise in hunting particular groups of insects to stock their nests ready for their larvae to feed on.

One of the most conspicuous at Hastings Country Park, especially on the south-facing bank and new path below the coastguard station, is the bee-wolf (Philanthus triangulum). They can be seen flying into their nest holes heavily laden with their bee prey.

Bee-wolf wasp with prey.

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The website has been fixed. Apologies for any inconvenience caused.

Ralph Hobbs