A bittern was showing well at Christmas Dell hide today. Smew and goosander were as usual visible from Scott and Makepeace hide.
ACCESS TO THE RESERVE
Please note that track work continues but the reserve will stay open as usual and we do not intend to close the track again.
Bits and pieces around on a low tide count from Winchelsea Beach to Pett Level. Highlights were 58 Golden Plover and 545 Lapwing roosting on exposed rocks on the shore just west of Winchelsea Beach, with three Brent Geese nearby. Other species included the usual suspects - Oystercatcher, Dunlin, Redshank, Curlew and Sanderling - though a couple of lost looking Teal on the sea was a bit unusual!
Jelly Ear (Auricularia auricula-judae) formerly called Jew’ Ear is common at Castle Water and can be found at any time of year. The Elder or Gorse bushes near the hide is a good place to find it.
Raptors provided the main highlights from Castle Water this morning, a Hen Harrier (ringtail) and a male Sparrowhawk showed well from the hide. At the viewpoint a Marsh Harrier and female Sparrowhawk were seen. A Merlin also gave good views at the northern end of the pit. Geese grazing in the nearby fields included, 6 White-fronted, 289 Canada and 43 Greylag.
Earlier this week there was some filming of the countryside around Rye and Winchelsea for transmission next Sunday, 28th January, on Countryfile - BBC1 usually about 11am (I know, it’s just when most of us are out enjoying the countryside!). As you might see the weather was bitterly cold and not a great deal of wildlife was seen!
Click here for link to Countryfile website.Â
Juliet Morris and filmcrew at Castle Water viewpoint.Â
Wednesday 24th January 2006
Fine snow, like salt, had fallen; shallow water and mud alike were crusted with delicate ice when I left home at 0730. Thrushes and Robins were in loud voice but the rooftops were empty: the birds which occupy them during the day had not yet arrived from their roosts. The Jackdaws which spend the night at Udimore, go to Coastguard Cottages first; the Starlings were on their way from Winchelsea Beach (or are they the Hastings Pier contingent?); I guess the Collared Doves were fluffed up in one of the garden conifers; but the House Sparrows…where do they go? I always assumed they stayed with us all the time, roosting under the eaves, but they certainly haven’t been around first thing for a few months.
With little wind, it didn’t seem too cold, and along the canal there were the usual birds: Green Sandpiper, Kingfisher and Barn Owl.
By the time I came to walk home after work, a wintry shower had passed, leaving a sunset of spectacular pink mountains and tall purple towers of snow cloud. I could see silhouetted lines of geese making their way back to their roost at Rye Harbour and a lone Marsh Harrier quartering the Pools. But when I turned in to the Pannel Valley at about 16.40, I encountered more Marsh Harriers – a little flock of 5 wheeling above the reedbed. All of these were brown f/juv types, with varying degrees of white on them and one was missing a few primaries on the left wing – maybe it had been shot at? The bird at the Pools was still visible, so – 6 harriers together? In all the years I’ve lived here I’ve never seen so many at once. It was like…Stodmarsh?!
All five eventually settled down into the central reed bed, among the squealing Water Rails and rattling Cetti’s Warblers. As I walked up over the hill, wondering what the bright planet was just beneath the moon, a fat Woodcock slipped past me, silhouetted against pale snow clouds.