Highlights this morning included, 34 Dunlin, 2 Knot and at least 1000 Sandwich Terns (some below) on Flat Beach Quarry. 7 Common Sandpipers and 4 Green Sandpipers were spread between Ternery Pool and the pools on Harbour Farm. Two Arctic Skuas were chasing Common Terns close inshore at the River Mouth.
An hour checking the Small Red-eyed Damselfly colony in one of the drainage ditches on Castle Farm provided some excellent wildlife encounters yesterday afternoon. First was a confiding Large Marsh Horse-fly (Tabanus autumnalis) pictured, then Emperor and Brown Hawker gave good views ovipositing, the later in dead wood which was set into the bank several inches above the water line. A Great Silver Beetle (Hydrophilus piceus) was a nice find amongst the floating aquatic plants, and then finally a Water Vole gave fantastic prolonged views swimming amongst the ditch vegetation before disappearing into the bank.
The sun was hot and the sea warm at Cliff End today, but the sudden arrival of a dense crowd of gulls around me was a bit unnerving…
Then I realised that they were snatching dead fish from the water - Mackerel and Horse Mackerel I think - some half as long as the Herring Gulls themselves. Noisy disputes ensued, with a few Lesser Black-back Gulls proving dominant while the smaller Black-headed Gulls were bystanders. Read the rest of this entry »
So far this week sightings on the reserve have included ruff, dunlin, bar tailed godwit, common sandpiper, green sandpiper and greenshank. Yesterday on the 23rd four raven were spotted flying purposefuly over the reserve.
Toad Rush is one of the small rushes at Castle Water and grows on the bare muddy margins. This is just the habitat that the alien New Zealand Pigmyweed likes and you can see from the photo that the rush (centre) is about to engulfed. The pigmyweed is widespread in the RX area, click here for previous postings. So, which will win?
Another sign of the slow start to the summer has been the low numbers of one of our still common and widespread bumblebee species, the red-tailed bumblebee Bombus lapidarius. Four years ago, on timed walks during May and July at Dungeness a total of 82 of these insects were counted. This year, during the same exercise only 7 were seen. Numbers are only just starting to pick up in our garden at Northiam
Workers and queens are distinctive with a velvety black body and an orange-red tail. They seem to be particularly attracted to bird’s-foot trefoil Lotus corniculatus and white clover Trifolium repens, and are a species that can be encouraged by allowing lawns with these species to flower. Read the rest of this entry »
The Newenden flood still contains water, but is drying out, revealing wet mud and is starting to draw in a variety of waders in small numbers. Yesterday evening in amongst a small flock of lapwing, and a group of starlings pretending to be waders, were a pair of greenshank, one with coloured rings on its legs, a ringed plover, and another smaller wader with a short down-curved beak that was spotted just as a posse of three hot air balloons passed low overhead sending everything, bar a few brave crows, flying off.
This area has never stayed so wet for so long in the 10 years I have lived in Northiam. It would be nice to think it was a deliberate bit of Environmental Stewardship rather than the accidental by-product of another wet year.
Highlight in the Lime Kiln moth trap this morning were four Starry Pearl (Cynaeda dentalis, below). This micro moth is a real rarity nationally, though turns up in small numbers annually at Rye Harbour. This species is largely confined to coastal habitats in the south-east, where the larvae feed on Viper’s Bugloss, actually feeding within the lower leaves.
The shrill alarm calls of House Martins above our rooftops usually precede the rapid transit of a Sparrowhawk or Hobby, but this time it was a Peregrine stooping on a Buzzard. A short while later, a flock of 8 Crossbills sped over the gardens.
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This flower is now looking its best…. despite its name this is a native of Sicily, but has become established at Rottingdean… and recently at Rye Harbour, just seaward of the red roofed hut near the river mouth.
