RXwildlife Sightings

This morning a calm Rye Harbour was a very noisy place with hundreds of birds displaying. One of the distinctive sounds was the “yodelling” of Redshank, produced during their quivering display flights - listen here. I have yet to capture a photograph of this flight, but now the birds regularly stand as “sentinels of the marsh” on fence posts. Close to the red-roofed hut they are so used to people that it is easy to photograph them in their breeding plumage.

We had two Chiffchaffs singing in the garden here in Peasmarsh yesterday, and my  wife saw the first Orange-Tip butterfly.

Chris Drew by e-mail

Last night the Marshmallow plants growing at Rye Harbour Nature Reserve featured briefly on the BBC program fronted by ethnobotanist James Wong. He produced a remedy for sore throats with the roots of Marshmallow, and also emphasised that you should not dig up wild plants, but grow your own from seed. Click here to watch program.