RXwildlife Sightings

The bottom right corner of this tetrad is sea, which today was remarkably free of birds “using” it. They were “using” the air above it (migrating Brents, incoming Starlings, coasting gulls) or “using” the offal chucked into it by passing RXboats.

However the land part of the square provides an interesting contrast between sheltered gardens (progressively cleared to crowd in ever more bloated houses) and naked rocky cliff-line and shore. The former habitat is busy with Blackbirds, Robins and House Sparrows, with strings of Long-tailed Tits passing through and the odd Coal Tit favouring the gloomy 1930’s Monterey Pines on Cliff End.

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Killing two birds with one stone, as we say, I combined the monthly WeBS count with a Winter Atlas survey of TQ 71Z.

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From the viewpoint this morning, a female Marsh Harrier and at least one Bearded Tit were present, while two male Pintail were on Castle Water visible from the hide and a Goldeneye was on the new pits behind Ternery Pool.

The increasing area of saltmarsh near the mouth of the Rother, seems to be encouraging more Brent Geese to stay for longer.  Perhaps, some will stay all winter?

A walk around the beach this morning found a few flowers still struggling to make a show, including Yellow Horned Poppy (below), Viper’s Bugloss, Red Valerian and Herb Robert.

On Sunday a group of recorders undertook a co-ordinated harrier survey across the RX area. A total of 20 marsh harriers and one ringtail hen harrier were counted at various sites. This is the highest total recorded for marsh harrier.