RXwildlife Sightings

One of my favourite wetland plants is in flower now. Frogbit is like a tiny floating water-lily, but the flowers have just 3 petals. It grows in sheltered freshwater ditches across Rye Bay.

While there has been a trickle of Black-tailed Godwit over the last few days, todays ten is the first double figure count of the autumn. The scrape this afternoon held the first Ruff and the first five Wigeon of the autumn. A Grey Wagtail over the valley was also a sign of early passage.

The dry grassland around Camber Castle now has many large clumps of yellow flowering Lady’s Bedstraw. The dried plant has the scent of newly mown hay, it was formerly used for stuffing mattresses and is said to keep fleas away. I have always found this a difficult plant to photograph, but putting the camera on the ground gave better results yesterday.

This is another plant with lots of uses and folklore click here to find out more.