RXwildlife Sightings

The task of sorting out the barrage of garden birdsong is already quite mind-boggling, before any of the summer birds but Chiffchaffs have arrived (9 today).

The varied and sheltered gardens of Chick Hill, Cliff End and Fairlight Cove support large populations of common birds such as Woodpigeon, Collared Dove, Blue & Great Tit, Blackbird, Song and Mistle Thrush, Wren, Dunnock, Robin, Starling, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Carrion Crow and Magpie the latter two with their eyes on the lambing fields. Read the rest of this entry »

The recent article by Brian Banks prompted me to find a photo from last spring showing a palmate Lisotriton helveticus (male) and a smooth newt L. vulgaris (female) in a bottle-trap. Female smooth and palmate newts can be difficult to separate in the field, but trapped individuals, allowing close inspection, can be separated by several features. This photo shows the unspotted throat of the palmate newt (below) and the spotted throat of the smooth and I find this the most useful and consistent way of identifying female palmate from smooth newt in the hand. Note that the throat of palmates often have a pinkish hue as in this picture.

Matthew Denny

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The viewpoint at Castle Water continues to produce birding highlights, this morning a Bittern gave good flight views and yesterday late afternoon 2 Firecrest showed welll in the bramble scrub nearest to the wooden walkway.