RXwildlife Sightings

Highlights over the weekend included: the great white egret still present at Denge Marsh; garganey - one on Denge Marsh on Sunday; merlin - one over access track on Sunday; red-backed shrike - juvenile in scrub by access track mid-afternoon yesterday; plus plenty of yellow wagtails, wheatears and willow warblers on the move.

Today started well with the great white egret still on Denge Marsh and clearly visible from the hide. A hobby flew over the access track and a wood sandpiper over Boulderwall Farm. Common sandpiper and ruff were on the ARC pit and two garganey were on Denge Marsh. A lesser whitethroat was spotted in the scrub near Denge Marsh hide and a juvenile cuckoo was seen feeding on caterpillars near the boardwalk. Good numbers of sand martins and yellow wagtails continued to pass through and a whinchat was seen from the viewpoint at Hooker’s pits.

From 17th to 24th August some waders have grown in their numbers, where others have gone down in numbers. The biggest increase was in Black-tailed Godwit with 28 feeding in the third pool, with 1 Bar-tailed Godwit feeding on the fields behind the last pool( eastern pool). Dunlins have been up and down with 105 last week to anything from 30 to 50 through the past few days. On Wednesday evening there was 20 Ring Plover with the usual number being eight or nine birds. Little R.Plover two or four birds,sometimes easy to see other times there hard work, because they seem to like most of the pools,not just the wader pool. Theres been two or three, of both Sp.Redshank& Greenshank with eleven Greenshank seen in the past week but I dont know what date. Peak numbers of Common Sandpiper was Sunday with a dozen flying along the beach at low tide, three to four birds are usually on the pools. Tonight there was still the same numbers of Black-tailed Godwits and there was 14 Avocet and there was a Wood Sandpiper calling but could not see it!!! Good bird watching Pete.

This mornings catch was typical of this year really - a decent number of species (but nothing exceptional) with a few which are uncommon at Rye Harbour (but few real rarities), and several common migrants. The latter category this morning included quite a few Rush Veneer and the odd Diamond-back Moth (both micros), Dark Sword Grass and White-point (macros), while the ‘uncommons’ included Cypress Pug (below, a relatively recent arrival in Britain, with the first record in 1959) and Lesser Treble Bar. The only real rarity was a single Ethmia bipunctella (see here), and it doesn’t seem to have been a great year for this species.

Cypress Pug
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Highlights this morning included 60 Yellow Wagtail along Shore Ridges, Greenshank, Curlew, Black-tailed Godwit and Dunlin feeding on the low water sand, Wheatear and Whimbrel on Harbour Farm were a Raven also passed overhead.

The longest tides of the year stretch the terrafirma of Rye Bay beyond its usual bounds.

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Pretty much the same species over the last few days as previously i.e Willow Warblers, Common and Lesser Whitethroats in the bushes around Toot Rock and Avocet, Black-tailed Godwit, Dunlin, Greenshank, Spotted Redshank, Ringed and Little Ringed Plover, Green and Common Sandpiper at the Pools. Today, 3 LRPs, masquerading as Turnstones, landed beside us on the shingle at high tide.
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The great white egret was still on Denge Marsh this morning, visible from the bridle track gate to the left of the hide. Wood and common sandpipers, greenshanks and ruff have been seen regularly from the Hanson-ARC hide over the past few days. Four common buzzards were spotted high over the reserve on Wednesday and there were several sightings of hobby, peregrine and sparrowhawk. South-bound passerines (including wheatear, yellow wagtail and willow warbler) continued to move through in good numbers.

This wasp, Philanthus triangulum, was previously considered to be one of the great aculeate rarities in Britain and is a Red Data Book insect. But in recent years it has become more widespread. It was first recorded at Rye Harbour in 1996, and has since become regular. The best site to see them is on the sandy tracks leading from the viewpoint at Castle Water out to the Castle.

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Earlier today I was privileged to walk across one of my favourite bits of Dungeness with some splendid relatively undisturbed shingle ridges, or so I thought.

A low hummock caught my eye in a shingle hollow - poking out of the vegetation, rather incongruously, was Read the rest of this entry »

A 2 hour walk in TQ81K (Quarry-Place Fm-Lovers’ Seat-Brakey Banks) turned up 42 bird species, including many migrant warblers. for the most part, these were difficult to see, their presence only indicated by little contact calls, the rustling of wings in the willows and the click of beaks closing on hapless insects. Read the rest of this entry »