Along the Royal Military Canal there was a spectacular eastbound migration up until mid-morning. Most birds were flying quite low into the breeze, so you stood amid a flood of Swallows and House Martins, with hundreds of Siskins passing in flocks of up to 50, their colours standing out brightly (for a change) in the sunshine. Hundreds of Meadow Pipits too, but not so much in the colour department to get excited about.
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Spent a fascinating hour or two yesterday watching Ivy Bees (Colletes hederae) with entomologist Simon Saxton who is researching the bee at Castle Rocks, Hastings. The video below shows some mating behaviour which is quite unusual but a feature of this species mating strategy and other Colletes species that form large aggregations.
Ivy Bees at Castle Rocks, Hastings, East Sussex from Andy Phillips on Vimeo.
When a new female emerges or is dug out by a male she produces a scent that attracts the males that tirelessly patrol the burrows. This scent also seems to rub off onto the successful male and any other attendant males which attracts more males, which pick up the scent themsleves attracting more males etc. producing these mating balls which can become quite large. You can see the successful male at the bottom of the mating ball with his legs tucked tightly into its body and antennae held tightly backwards over the head.
We still have tadpoles in our garden pond, and if they don’t hurry up they are not going to metamorphose before the winter kicks in. They are common frogs, the only anuran (frog or toad) that breeds in our garden. Elsewhere in our area other tadpoles that hang around in the water late into the summer include the larger marsh frog, because this species breeds much later in the spring.
The delayed development of common frog tadpoles can occasionally be due to metabollic disorders, such as a defective thyroid gland for instance, but usually the delayed growth is down to over-crowding, and an interesting mechanism that kicks in with a micro-organism called Anurotheca richardsii.
These curious cells lie somewhere Read the rest of this entry »
Lots of birds on the move over the Beach Reserve and Harbour Farm during the first hour of daylight, 700 Swallow, 110 House Martin, 150 Meadow Pipit, 15 Redpoll, 80 Linnet, 17 Pied Wagtail, 42 Golden Plover,135 Canada Geese (Pictured) and of course Siskins which continue to pass overhead in small groups. Along Shore Ridges 54 Ringed Plover, 143 Oystercatcher and 19 Dunlin were roosting.
Records reported for Thursday include an arrival of 7 song thrush and 6 redwing in the North’s Seat/Picnic Site area. Also 12 chiffchaff there and a passage of 54 meadow pipit, and single tree pipit, grey wagtail and pied wagtail overhead. Also overhead migration of skylark and chaffinch noted in small numbers over coastguard fields area of Hastings Country Park Nature Reserve.
Also redstart seen near Warren Cottage on Wednesday.
Reported by Andrew Grace on wildhastings.
During the last few days, a variety of raptors have been hunting over Pett Level, including a young Hobby which has given fantastic close-up views as it catches dragonflies low over the roadside pool. As I passed today at about 2pm, I was alerted by a cloud of nervous Lapwings to the presence of a Peregrine overhead and then even as I stopped I could see a Hobby gliding across behind the pool. At once, I noticed an odd bird sitting on the far bank, which turned out to be a big f Sparrowhawk, and as I watched it flying off, it passed 2 Kestrels.
(And this evening John Trowell reported 2 Little Stint, 1 Curlew Sandpiper, 20 Dunlin and 1 Avocet)
It is so easy to take everyday garden birds for granted. You put the food out, watch them feed and after a few days what was there tends to be forgotten. So one of the finds for me this year has been the BTO Garden Bird Watch website (see here). Once a week I watch the garden for 20 minutes and record the peak numbers of birds seen (you can watch for as long as you like, as long as you are consistent). Not only do you help contribute to national statistics on trends in bird numbers, but it also keeps a list of the various birds seen in your garden, and the frequency with which they have been recorded. Other species of wildlife can also be recorded.
So, over the past 6 months I can see that Read the rest of this entry »
Still plenty of Meadow Pipit on Harbour Farm today, with at least 100 feeding in the grass. Also here were a few Whinchat, Stonechat and Wheatear and the odd Whitethroat in the gorse scrub. On Camber shore, 67 Oystercatcher, 25 Ringed Plover, a Knot and small numbers of Sanderling and Dunlin, as well as 24 Sandwich Tern were present.
There is a short item on shingle wildlife tonight on Inside Out (southeast), BBC1 @ 7.30. It was filmed with Kaddy Lee Preston along the East Sussex coast in late June. It should cover a range of shingle flowers and breeding seabirds. If you miss it you should be able to see it after broadcast from here.
Kaddy and Barry with Sea Pea at Rye Harbour
This very large moth, measuring about 1½ inches in both directions, was on my house wall in Rye this morning, a few feet from the moth trap. It’s a rather scarce late summer and autumn species that rarely comes to light but can be attracted to sugar. The larval foodplants are poplars, aspen and willows. It wouldn’t open its wings for me and flew off after being photographed, but its full red-underwinged glory can be seen here.
It’s now early evening and I’ve just returned from a walk around the SSSI. At around 4 p.m. about 50 metres past the farm gate on the old railway line path, at TQ922198, a large grey moth flew up close to me, clearly showing red hindwings with thick dark bars! It flew towards the line of poplars and willows behind Rye Paddock - perfect habitat?
