RXwildlife Sightings

Oblivious to the ongoing drought there are some lovely patches of Lady’s Bedstraw in full bloom now. Look on grassland on poor soils such as around Camber Castle. Wikipedia here.

The hot warm evenings are ideal for ‘mothing’ and last night was exceptional. In 2 Robinson traps in a garden near Staplecross I caught over 900 moths of 117 species (including 29 easily identified micros). The highlights were 2 new species for the garden - Heart and Club (common at Rye Harbour) and The Lackey (above), but there were many other nice species including both Green and Scarce Silver-lines and another 26 hawkmoths. The only migrant was a single Diamond-back Moth.

The most unusual sighting for this week has been a feeding great white egret seen on the Denge Marsh on 7th and 8th July.  An unusually large flock of nine little egrets were seen flying from the reserve towards Lydd on 8th July.  The purple herons are still regularly seen from the Hooker’s pits viewpoint and Denge Marsh hide with the female having been seen more regularly of late. The bittern is not booming as regularly anymore although flight sightings of two or three a day continue.  Numerous hobbies are seen daily and the Boulderwall kestrel fledglings have now left the nest.  A family party of bearded tits, several cuckoos, marsh harriers and three common tern chicks were also of note.

Fred Batchelor has sent us another great picture from Crittall Hide, and it shows how stunning and graceful Mediterranean Gulls are.

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Avian highlights from Castle Water this morning included 28 Little Egret, 12 Ruff, 3 Garganey, 4 Green Sandpiper, Hobby, Barn Owl and 2 Raven.