RXwildlife Sightings

Last night, Friday, several moth-trapping teams were out in East Sussex, including events at Newhaven, Pevensey and Iden and on Cadborough Cliff near Udimore, all connected by the magic of twitter - so there was a certain amount of “gripping off” in twitching jargon! Steve Wheatley organised the Cadborough session, with five of us running 5 traps on what turned out to be a perfect calm, cloudy, warm evening - so warm that when I got home at 1 a.m. the temperature outside was 16.3 degrees!  Migrants included Diamond-back, Rush Veneer, Dark Sword-grass and White-point, while other highlights were Oak Lutestring, Canary-shouldered Thorn, Vapourer, Autumnal Rustic, Brick, Orange Sallow (pictured), Bulrush Wainscot and the spectacular little Gold Spot - 52 species in all, which is remarkable for late September. Still on lepidoptera, today I found a Clouded Yellow butterfly near ”Carter’s hide” along the canal from Cliff End to Winchelsea, a Rush Veneer and a couple of very fresh Painted Ladies but not much else.

Among the birds logged on a 2-hour seawatch at Dungeness in Friday morning’s strong easterly were five skuas including an adult Pomarine and 2 Arctic, 60 Gannets, 17 Common Scoter, 180 Sandwich Terns and 4 Little Gulls. A Black Redstart was on the power station wall and a Common Redstart by the Observatory, with a Pied Flycatcher also reported.