RXwildlife Sightings

The two cranes are still on the reserve and have been seen this morning. The weather forecast says it’s going to be clear and sunny all day, so no excuses for coming down to the reserve and doing a bit of crane spotting !!

While out on the Bittern Excavations yesterday one of the highlights was finding several Elaphrus riparius ground beetles. The damp sandy and muddy margins that are exposed by the dropping water level are a perfect habitat for these beetles. It was hard to get a sharpe image that shows just how superb these beetles are with their metalic green colouring.

Why not combine a visit to Camber Castle (click here for details) with a great display of a 1,000 Autumn Ladies Tresses, plus a bit of birdwatching?

The exceptional display of these creamy, white orchids, with the flowers spiralling up the stem can be seen here…

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Highlights this morning, 3 Kingfisher and a Black Tern at the River Mouth, a Spotted Redshank and 15 Snipe at Ternery Pool, an Arctic Skua and a Grey Seal offshore. Later at Castle Water, 3 Greenshank, 5 Green Sandpiper, Little Ringed Plover, 12 Snipe, 2 Raven, 3 Whinchat and a Peregrine. A Hoopoe was reported from Castle Farm in the morning, but could not be found later.

The tree sparrow colony here at Dungeness RSPB goes from strength to strength and is now worthy of its title ‘colony’. Three years ago, 15 nestboxes were put up on 3 short telegraph poles around the Boulderwall Farm area. 7 pairs bred that year, last year about a dozen pairs and this year 25 pairs! They are now using additional boxes around the farm buildings as well as a purpose-built ‘condominium’, built by one of our volunteers, containing 16 separate nest chambers! It has been great to see these once common birds every day I’m at work.

The two cranes are still with us, most recently seen from a distance from Hide 1. Four black-necked grebes, two golden plovers, two greenshanks, two black-tailed godwits, a wood sandpiper, black tern, common tern and peregrine were all seen at the Hanson-ARC site this morning. Passerines on the move included yellow wagtails, wheatears, lesser whitethroat and spotted flycatcher.

Numbers of species and individuals are dropping off slightly in the Lime Kiln moth trap, though still over 200 individuals of 41 species this morning. The majority of these were either Large Yellow Underwing or Vine’s Rustic, while the only really notable species were Viper’s Bugloss Moth and White-point. However, I did get a Great Silver Water Beetle (below), one of a run of several over the last week, the attractive Caddis Mystacides longicornis (see here) and less welcome, several Harlequin Ladybird.

Great Silver Water Beetle

The first beautiful baby slow-worms of the year have turned up under roof felt laid on the long grass at the end of our lawn. The cool weather this month has meant that these animals have been found regularly under this material, which warms in the sun and is thus a safe basking site. In hot weather they are warm enough to disperse to hunt for prey in the long grass. Contrary to popular opinion cool weather is the best time to search for these animals

We have had a peak count of 12 animals earlier this summer, which is very welcome given that they feed on slugs and snails.  Allowing some of your lawn to grow long is a good way to attract them, although you need to be careful when you mow it at the end of the summer.

On Harbour Farm this morning the highlights were an immature Ruff, over 65 Yellow Wagtail feeding along the fence line and the occasional Wheatear, while at Ternery Pool at least two Pintail (including the leucistic individual mentioned here) and five Common Sandpiper were present. On Camber Sands 85 Ringed Plover were roosting near the river mouth, with at least 15 Dunlin and five Sanderling here also, while from the viewpoint at Castle Water a female Marsh Harrier was hunting over the reedbed and at least three Cetti’s Warbler and a Kingfisher were also present.

One of the youngsters on today’s Family Treasure Hunt found this small but distinctive seashell along by the rivermouth. It’s a Common Wentletrap (from the German wenteltrap - a spiral staircase). I’ve only seen one from around here before - from Pett Level and also spotted by a sharp-eyed child. Apparently, they feed on Sea Anemones.
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