RXwildlife Sightings

Stopped at the Country Park car park about 10 o’clock and walked along the path towards the Quarry. Halfway along the path I was very pleasantly surprised to see a S E Owl, apparently hunting, low over the Quarry. Walked on into the Quarry and had further very nice views before it went out of sight, pursued by a Magpie, to the north, still low.

Spent the rest of the morning along at the Pools. 2 Little Stints, 14 Redshanks, 6 Dunlins, 165+ Lapwings, 2 Ringed Plovers, 3 Turnstones (later 8 on the beach), 3 Snipe, 2 Avocets, 1 Blk-t Godwit & a singing Cetti’s.

Just to the east of the Pools, with some Coots, there was what I made out to be an imm White-fronted Goose, with what seemed to be a damaged left wing.

At least 25 G C Grebes on the sea. Had some very good views of a Hobby, hawking low over the Pools and perched for some while on gate posts between them.

Robin Harris

Saturday 11 and Sunday 12: Highlights were five marsh harriers, hobby, merlin, golden plover, little stint, ruff, common sandpiper, little gull, rock pipit, yellow wagtail and Dartford warbler.

Tuesday 14: The day started well with a short-eared owl seen quartering the ground east of the access track. It was later seen being harassed by a carrion crow and flew off high towards Lydd. A low-flying peregrine briefly disturbed the lapwings on Burrowes pit mid-morning. Two kingfishers were seen from Firth hide and a Dartford warbler was seen again in scrub near the return trail. Snipe, golden plover and ruff were seen from the ARC hide.

Coal Tits have been the surprise birds this morning with a single bird in flight over Shore Ridges and two birds in willows near the hide at Castle Water. There have only been five records of this species on the reserve and only one record each for the two sites mentioned above. Additional highlights have inclided, Marsh Harrier, Hobby, 23 Snipe, 4 Black-tailed Godwit, Green Sandpiper and 1000 Lapwing at Castle Water. On the Beach Reserve 500 Golden Plover, 300 Lapwing, 48 Ringed Plover and 10 Snipe were roosting on Flat Beach Level.

A surprising selection of  fungi can be foung along the shingle ridges of the Beach Reserve, two species which are easy to find at the moment are Blackening waxcap (Hygrocybe nigrescens) and Sulphur Tuft (Hypholoma fasciculare). The picture below show a fresh Blackening Waxcap, as the fungi grows the cap and stem will start to turn black.

Blackening Waxcap

Read the rest of this entry »

Following yesterday’s False Widow sighting, the BBC have also noticed that Exotic species of spiders are making their homes in the UK.… Click Here