RXwildlife Sightings

… one was seen at mid-day at the mouth of the River Rother - photographed by Janet Richardson.

Highlights over the past few days have included Smew, Bittern, Buzzard and 900 Lapwing at Castle Water. On the Beach Reserve 220 Linnet, 70 Greenfinch and 12 Grey Partridge were along Shore Ridges, waders feeding along the shore have included 30 Knot, 3 Bar-tailed Godwit, 14 Grey Plover, 260 Curlew, 45 Dunlin and 150 Oystercatcher. From the Denny Hide which overlooks the Quarry 2 Greenshank and 3 Little Gull. 

Sunday 17th October 2010. Arrived at Pett around 7am, the tide was starting to go down, but low tide wasnt due until early afternoon. There is still heavy easterly movements of small birds, mainly finches,and again mainly Goldfinches, Linnets,with a few Siskins,Greenfinches mixed in. Also Pied Wagtails,1Yellow Wagtail, Meadow Pipits,Skylarks,Swallows and small numbers of House Martins again moving east. Early in the morning there was a dark cloud moving west which turned out to be Starlings well over a thousand of them. The bird of the day was a well marked Snow Bunting which was on the sea wall. ln the bay there was 2 R.T.Diver, 40/50 G.C.Grebe, 3Eider west, 10Common Scoter on the sea, and some Gannet fishing along the bay, plus small parties of Brent Geese moving around the bay all morning. Birds on the marsh, the numbers of Wigeon are buildling up nicely as are the Canada Geese, waders were in smaller numbers, with 1 Green Sand,80/100 Curlew,2/300 Lapwing 8 Redshank, 4/6 Grey Plovers. There was one of each Buzzard,Marsh Harrier (cream head) Peregrine (imm) Kestrel (female). Good birdwatching Pete.

A closer look at a large patch of yellow flowers today proved to be a new species record for Rye Harbour Farm. Yellow-wort (Blackstonia perfoliata) was last recorded at Rye Harbour in 1982. It is a member of the Gentian family and is common on chalky soils, so not common in the RX area.

Last year we had a pretty severe drought that resulted in most of the ditches at East Guldeford drying out, an apparent disaster.  Whilst this is known to be bad news for species such as water vole, and fish, does this hold for other wetland species?

This was virtually the last patch of water on this part of the Marsh last year.

This same section of grazing marsh was dramatically different Read the rest of this entry »

Novelties over the last few days have included Mandarin, Snow Bunting, up to 4 Buzzards and a variety of diurnal migrants. More details on RXbirdwalks and Wild Hastings.

Highlights from Castle Water today included Buzzard, 3 Marsh Harrier, Barn Owl, 10+ Bearded Tit, Kingfisher, 900 Lapwing, 8 Ruff, 80 Shoveler and 140 Wigeon.

Drake Shoveler

Highlights over the past few days have included 48 Little Egret, 2 Marsh Harrier, Buzzard, 18+ Bearded Tit, 3 Ruff, 95Wigeon, 70 Teal and 65 Shoveler at Castle Water. From the Beach Reserve 100 Linnet, 9 Grey Partridge, 12 Knot, 11 Grey Plover, 2 Black-tailed Godwit, 2 Greenshank, 40 Dunlin and 79 Brent Geese.

Brent Geese

The Buff-breasted Sandpipers at Scotney Gravel Pit have given great views and created a lot of interest for local birders recently, the picture below was sent to us from Fred Batchelor.

At the moment during the day Harbour Farm is the domain of huge machinery, so I was pleased to find that Curlews were still roosting overnight, 440 dispersed at dawn today. Goldfinches were again a feature with at least 500+ birds passing overhead on Harbour Farm and Shore Ridges.