RXwildlife Sightings

My terraced sparrow box in Northiam is proving to be very popular this year.  The red-tailed bumblebee nest is still active, with marked worker bumblebees making relatively rapid trips to collect pollen and nectar.  The middle hole has a house sparrows nest with eggs, and the hole at the far end of the box has just produced it’s first brood of sparrow chicks.

It had been vacated for about a day before a hornet queen visited it this afternoon, prospecting for a nest hole.  Fortunately she moved off to check other holes in a nearby property.  I say fortunately because the box overlooks our neighbours garden, and they get very twitchy about buzzing things in our garden - indeed one of their sons was stung in our garden a few years back.  I will not be popular if there are regular flights of hornets over the garden fence.  Which is a shame because they are superb insects, and despite their size, rather well behaved.

I was keeping an eye on the sky on a walk around Snargate, since I’d received a text from Andrew Grace, saying he’s seen 3 Red Kites over Pebsham.
When I saw a Kite, I was pleased, but quickly realised it was but one of a flock moving quickly northeastwards, mostly quite low.
Amazingly, I counted no fewer than 11 (yes that’s right ELEVEN) birds together before they were lost to view behind some trees.
More on RXbirdwalks

As the first (and only?) Lapwing chick fledges, the second nesting atempts are just hatching. Many pairs are still incubating their replacement clutches and today I came across this perfect little nest…

For a view of the eggs Read the rest of this entry »

After a fairly awful start to the moth trapping in May (with seven days trapping up to the 15th turning up a total of zero moths) things have picked up over the last week or so. Highlights so far have been several Ethmia bipunctella, White-point, Pine Beauty, Diamond-back moth and a Lesser Treble Bar. The last two were in this mornings catch, as was the first Great Silver Water Beetle of the month. Continuing the insect theme, the weekly butterfly/dragonfly transect was very thin on butterflies, with only one each of Small Heath and Peacock, and was saved only by quite a few Hairy Hawker still, Four-spotted Chaser, Large Red Damselfly and best of all my first Downy Emerald of the year at the northern end of Castle Water.

Lesser Treble Bar

In the course of a sunny and sociable hour’s walk yesterday, I found 34 bird species including 12 singing Blackcaps and nesting Grey Wagtail and GS Woodpecker. 4 LBB Gulls were bathing with the Herring Gulls at Shornden. Roof-nesting LBB Gulls are pretty localized in southern England, though their numbers seem to be increasing. I’m not sure whether anyone has attempted to check their status in Hastings/ St Leonards in recent years.
Read more on RXbirdwalks

All the shrimpers I met out in the shallows at Pett Level yesterday commented on the large numbers of Lesser Weavers turning up in their nets. Sorting them safely from the shrimps was a time-consuming job, enlivened by the presence of several other fish species. Read more on RXbirdwalks.

Always plenty to find in the woodland clearings and along the tracks and paths, butterfly highlights yesterday included at least 4 Dingy Skipper, 5 Brimstone and Common Blue. Several Broad-bodied Chaser were found hunting insects and Large Red Damselflies were present in good numbers around the bridge near Holmans Meadow, Slow Worm, Grass Snake and the day flying moth Mother Shipton were also found there.

A pair of Dingy Skipper, female bottom right.

Read the rest of this entry »