RXwildlife Sightings

The little stint was present again briefly on the islands in front of Makepeace hide and a grey plover flew over the reserve calling. Eight ruffs flew over the ARC pit and the escaped saker type falcon put in another appearance drifting high over ARC and being lost to view over Denge Marsh. The first fieldfare of the autumn flew over along with a grey wagtail and two rock pipits were investigating the newly scraped islands on ARC. Two lesser whitethroats were near Christmas Dell hide and two male blackcaps were around Hooker’s pits.

At this time of year there is a large passage of Meadow Pipit over the area. The question is, where are they going? A locally ringed migrant was caught 26 September 2006 and then ‘hunted’ on 01 December 2006 at Algeciras, Cadiz, Spain. This bird had travelled 1,719 kms and of course many more kilometers before arriving here.