RXwildlife Sightings

Friday 25: A spoonbill provided a pleasant surprise for a few lucky visitors when it put in a brief appearance on the ARC pit. Waders present included dunlin, knot, whimbrel, bar-tailed godwit and common sandpiper. Sandwich, little and common terns and little gulls were seen over Burrowes pit. The first swifts of the year were spotted and a barn owl was near Boulderwall Farm at dusk.
Saturday 26: The day started well with a grasshopper warbler heard near the Hanson-ARC hide. Little and Mediterranean gulls and a single black tern were seen from the Visitor Centre.
Sunday 27: The highlight of the day was an adult Iceland gull that appeared on Burrowes pit late in the afternoon.
A grasshopper warbler was once again near the Hanson-ARC hide. A garganey was seen from Makepeace hide. Common whitethroats and sedge warblers seemed to be in every suitable patch of vegetation. A cuckoo, three wheatears, yellow wagtails and more swifts were also of note.

Not an unfortunate domestic accident but a very attractive geometrid moth in my trap in Rye today. A local species of woodland and scrub on chalk, limestone and clays, occasionally found in gardens (from cultivated plants?). The larval foodplant is spindle. I caught only one last year, so maybe this will also be a one-off.

Right in front of the Parkes Hide at Ternery Pool there’s a pair of Mediterranean Gulls on territory among the Black-headeds, giving great views. Yesterday they spent several long minutes mating, but I missed photographing that and just got a picture of them looking well settled in.

Six of us ran five MV moth traps at Park Wood, Brede, on Friday night (25th) to kick off moth recording as part of Butterfly Conservation’s new Rother Woods Project (www.wildrye.info/files/rotherwoods.pdf). The habitat was mainly damp birch woodland with clearings. In ideal conditions - cloudy, mild and near calm - and serenaded by a distant Nightingale, we recorded about 60 moths of 32 species. Highlights included five species of Prominents (Pebble - Steve Wheatley’s photo above, Pale, Coxcomb, Scarce and no fewer than 5 Great Prominents), Early and Purple Thorns, Early Tooth-striped, Engrailed, 4 Lunar Marbled Browns, Water Carpet, Peacock, Sallow Kitten, Waved Umber, Knot Grass, Frosted Green, 2 Brown Silver-lines and 3 V-Pugs - a great start to the season. There will be a public moth meeting for National Moth Night at Great Dixter from 8.00 pm on Saturday 7th June and from 8.00-9.00 am on 8th in what should be an extremely productive habitat - don’t miss it !

The Whimbrel roost on Flat Beach Quarry will be checked at dawn for the next week or so 212 were counted leaving the roost this morning, 6 Curlew and 7 Bar-tailed Godwit also departed the roost. It was interesting to note that 80% of the Whimbrel left the roost very late when compared to previous years, last year nearly all the birds we gone by 5.15 am. A quick look offshore produced 2 Fulmar, a lingering Arctic Skua and 15 Gannet. At Castle water at least 100 Swifts put on a fine arial display over the main pit and new excavations