RXwildlife Sightings

Although there are masses of birds on the level itself, there seems to be less variety than usual at this time of year and it was hard work to find more than 70 species this morning.
Blackbirds continue to be numerous in the immediate hinterland, Redwings too in some places and Song Thrushes kept flying out from the roadside verge as I drove into Hastings at first light.
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The winter beach litter surveys will be

Short sections of these beaches will be surveyed and the marine rubbish removed. This is part of the Marine Conservation Society’s Adopt-a-Beach project and is supported locally by Rye Harbour Nature Reserve. For more information click here. These winter surveys can produce higher amounts of marine debris due to the winter storms, and strange items can be found. The oddest nationally is a glass eye! Click here for more items. If you will be able to come along to one or other of these events please email me - dinsdale.woodcote@virgin.net. If you know of others who would like to take part then please pass on this info. I shall provide some refreshments on the day. As well as the obligatory paperwork(!).

Highlights this morning included a Scaup and a Goldeneye on the new pits near Harbour Farm Barns, 200+ Golden Plover, 250+ Lapwing and a Ruff on Flat Beach Level and a Merlin on the shore ridges. In addition, 400+ Curlew were feeding along the shore early morning along with 15 Brent Geese and small numbers of Sanderling, Dunlin and Grey Plover. A visit to Castle Water mid-afternoon turned up two Smew (one male) visible from the northern end of Castle Water, Water Rail (from the hide), and eight Ruff and two Bar-tailed Godwit on Castle Farm.

Water Rail from Castle Water Hide

There can be little doubt that the introduction of the nyger seed feeder has had a dramatic impact on the numbers of goldfinch using gardens.  This is shown clearly by the graphs on the BTO Garden Birdwatch website which shows a clear trend in increased numbers of this bird over the past 15 years. At the start of 1996 they were recorded in just over 10% of the gardens participating in this monitoring scheme. Today the figure stands at over 60% of gardens

What a success story for Read the rest of this entry »