RXwildlife Sightings

Broad-bodied Chaser (pictured below) was a dragonfly species that benefitted from the wetland creation at Castle Water, it was one of the first species to colonise three small pools and this years cohort has started to emerge this week. The ditch north of the hide continues to be of interest with 83 Four-spotted Chaser emerging this week and 123 Hairy Hawker exuviae have been collected since late April. At least 60 Variable Damselfly were grounded and easy to count in the dull weather today. Downy Emerald emergence appears to have stopped now with a total of 19 exuviae found near the viewpoint, on warm days adults should be seen on the wing untill mid July. A Spoonbill (pictured below) also showed well from the hide perched in the willows amongst the Cormorants and with 5 Little Egret. 

Broad-bodied Chaser just about to take its maiden flight.

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Have you planned your visit to the RX area in the coming week? Lots of events throughout the area at our Festival page…. click here.

A dark and grimm early morning along the shore was brightened by the flowering Sea Pea which is having another good year with masses growing in the splash zone along shore ridges. Avian highlights included a Peregrine, 2 Little Tern, 6 Knot and 15 Black-tailed Godwit.

Flowering Sea Pea along shore ridges this morning

This is the current scene from the Parkes Hide at Ternery Pool. Black-headed Gulls nesting on the top of the islands now have large chicks, exercising their developing wings, lower down are pairs with younger chicks (they had to wait for the water level to drop) and lower still is a line of Common Terns that have only just started to nest. The fence in the water is designed to deter swimming Fox and Badger.

Walking beneath the cliffs at Fairlight yesterday it was striking how the dominant plants are non-natives. As the gardens (and houses) tumble into the sea, some of the garden plants have established in a big way. The “big three” are Pampas Grass, Wall Flower and Hottentot Fig. They are certainly attractive flowers, but are they a good thing? I suspect they offer food and shelter to many native invertebrates, perhaps even rare species…

Pampas Grass
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At Pannel Bridge today, 2 more Red Kites, 3 Buzzards, a single Peregrine, 3 Cuckoos and a Turtle Dove.
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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.
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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…

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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