RXwildlife Sightings

The sandstone & clay cliffs, flowery undercliff, cliff-top heathland, semi-natural grassland and scrubby woodland edge of Hastings Country Park Nature Reserve are outstanding for Hymenoptera Aculeata, a group of insects that includes the bees, ants and wasps. The sandy ground and legume rich grasslands of the nature reserve produce an abundance of nesting habitat and a rich pollen and nectar resource for these insects. So far 204 species of aculeate have been recorded for the nature reserve and a checklist of the Hymenoptera Aculeata has been produced that lists all the species so far recorded.

The checklist is a taxonomic checklist listing species according to currently accepted phylogenetic relationships and lists all the superfamilies, families, subfamilies, genera, subgenera and species recorded within Hastings Country Park Nature Reserve. Synonyms are also listed so this list can be compared with older lists produced for the Hastings area.

Currently on the wing at the moment is one of the most charismatic of British bees the long-horned bee, Eucera longicornis. This is a nationally scarce species and a priority species for conservation in the UK. The females nest in clay banks on the undercliff and specialise in collecting pollen from members of the pea family such as bird’s-foot trefoil, kidney vetch, meadow vetchling and grass vetchling. The males with their very long antennae are a conspicious feature along the undercliff defending territory and nectaring from bramble flowers.

More pictures of aculeates in Hastings here.

This morning at Malthouse Wood, Peasmarsh, Bob, Mary and I counted at least 8 White Admirals flitting among the honeysuckle, oak and sweet chestnut. They hardly settled but I did manage a few photos of a mating pair. In a meadow nearby we found several Small Skippers among the Large, and a few Ringlets among the Meadow Browns, both new for the year. Of dragonflies, a male Southern Hawker came past at the Admiral site. Common Darters, mostly yellowish immatures, are now appearing everywhere.

A bird atlas survey of tetrads TQ91U and TQ92Q in yesterday’s blustery winds took me from Camber up to the Kent Ditch, the old Sussex boundary. This area is so deserted that in about 5 miles of walking I saw nobody until I reached the new wind power station (why call it a farm?). The site was very quiet, just a few workmen and their dinky-toy vehicles totally dwarfed by the first three windmills towering above me into the blue sky. If the marching pylons represent the 20th century, then certainly these sleek white sculptures are symbolic of the 21st, a new frontier in the continuing challenge to produce enough energy to ‘meet people’s needs’ (perhaps we should all try to ‘need’ a little less?)   Oh yes, the birds!  All the expected marsh species, with Tree Sparrow and Yellow Wagtail carrying food for young, several Mute Swan families, chicks of Little Grebe, Coot and Moorhen, a hunting male Marsh Harrier, plus quite a variety of butterflies and dragonflies including a pair of Emperors with the female egg-laying on a floating stem right in front of me. All under a vast marsh sky.

Highlights from todays work party at Castle Water included, 2 Raven mobbing a Marsh Harrier overhead, 3 Green Sandpiper and at least 60 Redshank on the new excavations, and 5 Bearded Tit gave good views in nearby reeds while we were having lunch. Also of interest was the Slow worm (pictured) swimming across one of the new ponds created in phase two of the Bittern Excavations.

Superficially like an orchid flower (perhaps you can even make out a person), BUT this is Red-hempnettle, in the Dead-nettle family. A nationally rare plant that thrives on the shingle next to the road, just west of the Mary Stanford Lifeboat House. See also this posting.

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Following the orchid postings of 20th and 22nd June there is another species now in flower in the RX area. At Rye Harbour there is a colony of Marsh Helleborines and they have just started flowering - each flower is about 15mm across and they looked good in this morning’s dew.

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