RXwildlife Sightings

If you visit Castle Water in the next few weeks you may be horrified to see big yellow machines ripping up the Nature Reserve. Do not be worried, this is the next phase of the wetland creation there. For more details see the poster or our ALSF project page
This is the major part of a project funded by English Nature through Defra’s Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund or ALSF.
Funding also from Sussex Wildlife Trust, Sussex Ornithological Society and the Friends of Rye Harbour Nature Reserve.

The 3 pairs of Little Grebe which bred on the roadside pool are still busily feeding their young among a mass of juvenile Coot and Tufted Duck, and up to 4 Pochard. A black raft of 600 Common Scoters idles far out on the flat blue sea.

On the scrapes, migrating waders include Common & Green Sandpiper, Ringed & Little Ringed Plover, Dunlin, Ruff and Black-tailed Godwit.

In the grass, newly returned Yellow Wagtails run among the legs of cattle which nuzzle amiably against a digger doing a bit of maintenance work, while overhead pass dense flocks of buzzing Sand Martins.

In the evenings, the sky echoes with piping Greenshank calls and Hobbies execute fearless loops in hot pursuit of Swifts.

The 1500+ Sandwich Terns at Ternery Pool are giving spectacular flight dislpays at the moment, other highlights from the Beach Reserve include 9 Little Ringed Plover, 6 Green Sandpiper, 2 Hobby and a Marsh Harrier.

Although the moth trap was bulging there are few migrants caught. The commonest were 37 Silver Y, five Rush Veneer and six Dark Swordgrass. The pick of the catch was a single Tree Lichen Beauty. 

Little Egret numbers are begining to increase again now, 34 came in to roost at dusk yesterday, also seen from the viewpoint 2 Barn Owl, Hobby, 3 Green Sandpiper, Greenshank, Kingfisher and Great Crested Grebe.