At least 15 Green Sandpiper were on the Beach Reserve or Castle Water along with 7 Common Sandpiper and 2 Greenshank. Broods of Tufted Duck are still appearing the brood pictured was at Castle Water and the Lesser Emperor Dragonfly was still present at the northend. Two Clouded Yellow Butterflies were on Harbour Farm.
A guided walk for the FRIENDS of the reserve found some interesting flowers at the Beach Reserve today. Highlights were Least Lettuce (although at 11.30 we were too late to see flowers open!), Stinking Harksbeard, Red Hempnettle, Babbington’s Orache, Sea Heath (photo), Prickly Saltwort, Rottingdean Sea Lavender (photo), Prickly Saltwort (photo), Sea Spurge, Sea Wormwood and the seaside sub-species of Curled Dock, Bittersweet and Herb Robert.
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The Purkinje effect (sometimes called the Purkinje shift, or dark adaptation) is the tendency for the peak sensitivity of the human eye to shift toward the blue end of the colour spectrum at low illumination levels. This effect introduces a difference in colour contrast under different levels of illumination. For instance, in bright sunlight, geranium flowers appear bright red against the dull green of their leaves, but in the same scene viewed at dusk, the contrast is reversed, with the petals appearing a dull red against paler green leaves.
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It is just about the end of the breeding season for the terns, so I thought an end of term report would be interesting. It has been an excellent year. The 500 pairs of Sandwich Tern produced about 500 chicks to the flying stage. The 170 pairs of Common Tern raised over 100 chicks. The only slight disappointment was the sudden end to the Little Tern breeding during the week, perhaps a fox was involved, but even so 21 pairs raised 9 chicks to fledging… that may not sound much, but they only have to average half a chick per pair per year to maintain the population. A big THANK-YOU to all our Tern Watch volunteers have helped safeguard the breeding bids of the reserve this year.
This success was not just about good management of the nature reserve, but it was also due to a good supply of suitable fish in Rye Bay, lets hope for a repeat next year!.
