RXwildlife Sightings

Highlights since Friday have included Bittern, Barn Owl, Peregrine and a superb male Hen Harrier at Castle Water, wildfowl numbers are back to normal after the cold weather movements at the start of month but still 130 Gadwall, 250 Wigeon, 95 Teal and 110 Shoveler can be find around the main pit. On the Beach Reserve at least 350 Curlew have been along the shore at first light along with 33 Grey Plover, 6 Knot and 140 Oystercatcher. The sea at low water has provided some cracking views of many Razorbills, Red-throated Divers and 3 Slavonian Grebe, elsewhere a Merlin has frequented Shore Ridges and has popped up at other locations around the Beach Reserve, the Spotted Redshank can still be found at Ternery Pool with Parkes providing the best views at the moment.

A pair of Gadwall…………

Huge numbers of Great Crested Grebes offshore at high tide today: 2280 counted but probably more.
Also many Gannets, Rt Divers and Razorbills, small groups of Common & Velvet Scoter, Eider and a couple of Goldeneye.
Read more on RXbirdwalks.

Highlights at Castle Water over the last few days have included up to two Marsh Harrier, two Bittern, Peregrine, Barn Owl, Black-tailed Godwit and Black-necked Grebe while a Scaup and up to seven Goldeneye have been present on Long Pit, and at least one more Bittern and a male Smew on Narrow Pit. At Beach Reserve hundreds of Golden Plover and a Spotted Redshank. Offshore, good numbers of Razorbill, Guillemot and Kittiwake passing by, with the odd Gannet and Red-throated diver too.

Scaup

The Glossy Ibis made another sortie over the recording area and a Raven was heard but not seen. A party of three White-fronted Geese also flew east over the area. Two Firecrests were seen at the Long Pits.
At sea, there were large numbers of Gannets, Razorbills and Guillemots and at least 500 Kittiwakes feeding offshore, 65 Wigeon flew east and the Glaucous Gull remains on site.
from the DBO website

Bittern are frequently recorded in the gravel pits at Dungeness and Rye, but they maintain a discrete prescence on Walland Marsh too this winter.  One flew into a reedbed way off the public footpath at dusk on Sunday evening.

Two Bittern were doing a poor job at hiding today at castle water, climbing up to a metre up the reeds and flying from patch to patch- even sharing the small patch in front of the hide amicably for ten minutes or so!

Apart from that there were good numbers of Shoveler and Teal with everything else making do as most of the islands are submerged after the recent rains.

I saw my first butterfly of the year during a sunny period early this afternoon, a Peacock.  It was probably a disturbed specimen, like two 7-spot ladybirds that were found in our compost bin after a weeding session.

Ten intrepid souls braved the wind today for the first of this years bi-annual SOS outings at Rye Harbour, largely concentrating on the Castle Water end of the reserve. Highlights at the northern end of the pit were Black-necked Grebe, redhead Smew, Ruff, and at least one Marsh Harrier. From the hide, a Black-tailed Godwit roosted close in along with two Snipe, while at least four Pintail were also seen, and a Scaup was reported on the southern part of the pit. We returned via Long Pit/Narrow Pit, where we picked up at least three Goldeneye on Harbour Farm, and keeping the best until last, a male Smew and a Bittern at Narrow Pit.

Unlike the coastal marshes the numbers of waterfowl present at the flooded area by the railway line at Newenden this winter have been low, until recently, but with milder weather breaking the big freeze numbers have started to pick up in the past week or two.  Numbers of duck are still lower than last year, with  a small flock of teal last week, and today 46 shoveler, 25 gadwall, 9 mallard and 5 wigeon, but numbers of birds were boosted by around 1000 lapwing, which put up a good show wheeling over the water this afternoon.

Meanwhile on the opposite side of the road a single whooper swan was present again, with a couple of mutes.

Highlights over the last few days have included up to four Bittern, two Raven, a Black-tailed Godwit, six Pintail and two Marsh Harrier at Castle Water, and a maximum of 300 Golden Plover, 240 Curlew and a Common Buzzard on the Beach Reserve. In addition, up to six Goldeneye have been present on Harbour Farm and the Spotted Redshank has been seen on Ternery Pool.