RXwildlife Sightings

The wasp mimicry of six-belted clearwings is quite exceptional, even the flight and behaviour is much closer to a Cerceris or Mellinus sphecid wasp than a day-flying moth. This nationally scarce moth is quite common at Glyne Gap and on the undercliff at Hastings Country Park Nature Reserve but is very easy to overlook due to its wasp mimicry and habit of hiding quietly amongst the foliage of its larval foodplant, bird’s-foot trefoil. (At Hastings Country Park Nature Reserve it probably also feeds on kidney vetch.)
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Over the past few weeks over 700 Common Darter exuviae have been collected on the reserve. Generally a vertical position is adopted (click here), so it was strange to find one this morning clinging to the underside of a Water Plantain leaf. The second picture below shows the sharp claws from one of the legs. This enables a firm grip on which its life depends.

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On Sunday morning there were 6 Little Egrets, 3 Little Ringed Plovers, 2 Teal and a rather early Wigeon at the roadside pool.
A further 4 Little Egrets were roosting with 2 Grey Herons in oaks behind Carter’s Flood, which at that point was more like Carter’s Mud and in danger of severe puzzling. It had attracted just a handful of Starlings and Pied Wagtails but, following heavy rain, may be in a better state today.
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