RXwildlife Sightings

Avian highlights from Castle Water today included 3 Wood Sandpiper, 3 Little Ringed Plover, 10 Common Sandpiper, 8 Green Sandpiper, 17 Little Egret and 3 Comon Buzzard passed overhead heading eastwards.

The late nesting pair of Ringed Plovers reported previously, hatched 2 chicks yesterday afternoon. Because there are 2 unhatched eggs, the female is staying close to the nest, but today the young chicks are exploring and finding their own food… and frequently returning to be warmed up. They are likely to stay in front of the Crittall Hide for some days…

Over the past week or two I have been recording numbers of bumblebees on timed walks at Dungeness (with Pete Akers), East Guldeford, Rye and Pett Level.  Dungeness has proved to be disappointing this year, with a dramatic decline in the numbers of these insects since last month, possibly because dry conditions have affected the quality of forage.  Highlights have been some of the field margins at Rye and Pett Level, with a strip of hybrid marsh/hedge woundwort producing very large numbers of bumblebees again this year.

This plant at Pett level proved to be particularly attractive to the garden bumblebee Bombus hortorum and the red-tailed bumblebee Bombus lapidarius, but a third specimen of the scarce Read the rest of this entry »

This insect, feeling rather like a limp saggy balloon with a pair of ferocious jaws, is not one of our most beautiful species, but it is probably one of the characteristic insects of the East Sussex/Kent grazing marshes.

It is the larva of a great silver beetle Hydrophilus piceus and was Read the rest of this entry »

The Orache Moth used to be a resident in the east of England until 1915 but is now a rare immigrant. The rather tatty specimen above was caught near Staplecross on the night of the 19th July, but to show what they can look like I have also shown a fresh specimen which was caught in SW France earlier this year. Read the rest of this entry »

This is developing into a good year for migrants on the south coast, with Rye Harbour no exception. The Sussex Emerald a few days ago was a probably a migrant, and today we had another with the capture of a Splendid Brocade (Lacanobia splendens). This is a species which comes from central and southern Europe and turns up occasionally on our shores. This year Phil Jones has had a few at Icklesham and it has been trapped at Portland and a few other south coast sites so having one turn up here was not completely unexpected.

Splendid Brocade

… for the Rye Harbour list today. Feeding on Hogweed this White Admiral was an addition to the area’s species list. As a woodland species it must have been lost, being more than 300 metres from the nearest tree and a kilometre to the nearest small wood. It looked rather exotic on its long rounded wings gliding from flower to flower.

Avian highlight at dawn was finding a Stone Curlew walking around the patch of bare shingle at the southern end of Castle Water. The bird showed well briefly before it realised it was not alone, it took flight to the nearby fields and was soon lost from view, a short time after from the hide 7 Common Sandpiper, 3 Green Sandpiper, Greenshank, 400 Lapwing and a Turtle Dove. Family groups of Bearded Tits are easier to see now and provided lots of good views from the reedy margins at the northern end of the main pit and infront of the viewpoint, at least 20 birds were counted from the two sites.

Steve Ray visited Rye Harbour today to see young terns and was not disappointed with his three photos. They will soon have fledged and be starting their journey to Africa…
Read the rest of this entry »

The white-tailed plover is still on site and seen most frequently around the ARC pits.  At the same location, two wood sandpipers have been seen today.  The great white egret is also still on the Denge Marsh and the purple heron chicks were seen for the first time over the weekend.  It is not possible to say how many are present but it appeared to be at least two individuals.  We are expecting the oldest chicks to fledge shortly.