RXwildlife Sightings

I have previously reported on the numbers of this endangered plant at Dungeness and Rye, which declined by 90% and 50% respectively.  I have been delaying monitoring the Northiam population because the plants were growing so close together that the only way to count them was pull them up and count the tap roots.  I have been resisting the urge, however:

1. As they start to seed there is only so much a patient wife (and neighbours) will take, and
2. At this stage the plants produce a bed of seedlings which are disrupted if you uproot the parent plants later in the year.

The result of this was a record breaking count for this site of 1800 plants (and I may yet find more), up 550% on last year.

This plant shows a nice cyclical pattern of boom and bust so far, although Read the rest of this entry »

This weekend two beach surveys are taking place:

These are part of the Marine Conservation Society’s Beachwatch campaign where up to 400 beaches around the U.K are surveyed for all the marine debris that has found it’s way there.  Generally, rubbish of plastic origin makes up 70% of all litter found, with fishing nets and ropes very common.  Our local beaches have turned up toys from Europe, a water colour painting and even a message in a bottle.

Volunteers join in to scour the beach for all traces of rubbish, attempt to identify it all and send the results off to the Marine Conservation Society to be part of a national report.  It can take 2 to 4 hours recording but we are able to make a short stretch of beach litter free for all, including the marine wildlife too.  All the plastic can be around for thousands if not millions of years and is a deadly hazard for birds, fish, cetaceans, seals and others.

All info about these beach surveys can be found at http://www.mcsuk.org

Rye Harbour Nature Reserve has organised the surveys at Rye Harbour on Saturday 23rd July and Pett Level on Sunday 24th July, both starting at 10am .

If anyone would like to join in please can they contact Lucy Balmforth at
lucy.balmforth@eastsussex.gov.uk or 01797 227784 for Rye Harbour surveys, or Andy Dinsdale at dinsdale.woodcote@virgin.net for Pett Level surveys.

I mentioned a week or two back that a queen shrill carder bee Bombus sylvarum had been seen on the RSPB reserve at Dungeness.  This week the first small workers were observed, foraging on tufted vetch.  The photographs below, by Dave Walker (for which many thanks) show some of the key characters of this very rare bumblebee.

It has a Read the rest of this entry »

Avian highlights over the past few days have included at least 23 Common Sandpiper and 16 Green Sandpiper spread over the many pools, pits and scrapes. Little Ringed Plover have also been around in good numbers with 9 birds at Castle Water and 3 on Harbour Farm pools. Several Greenshank and the 30+ flock of Black-tailed Godwits (that have been in the local area for sometime now) pop up occasionally along the shore. Small flocks of Goldfinch, Greenfinch and linnet provided interest yesterday at Castle Water, 4 Yellow Wagtail were also of note.

Common Sandpiper

For the last couple of days there has been a HUGE new structure in Rye Bay. It’s the “Svanen” - Dutch for swan. An 8700 tonnes crane converted to being a monopile installer. Basically it lifts wind turbine towers & bangs ‘em into the sea bed! Rather amazingly it can lift 800 tonnes and work in 40 m. of water.

I am blessed with good neighbours either side of our house.  They let me do odd things like crawl over their lawn counting stinking hawk’s-beards.  I was doing that today when I had two surprises.

Surprise 1

A heath bumblebee Bombus jonellus.  This is one of our smallest bumbles and I last recorded it in our garden in 2007.  To be honest it was so long ago that I was starting to doubt the identification.  This species is superficially similar to the small garden bumblebee (but much smaller, and with a short face).  But there it was, an exquisite little 2nd generation worker about 10 mm long, feeding on a white clover flower, and unmistakeable.  This lawn is usually mown short, but had a covering of white clover flowers  held close to the ground.  Now our lawn is managed to produce flowers (they stand tall and proud and scream out Pollen and Nectar), and are inspected daily for bees, but have I seen any there this year? Eventually I did disturb it and it flew off over our garden - my 10th* bumblebee species for the year in the garden, then I had surprise 2

Surprise 2

So attentively had I been Read the rest of this entry »

Sunday 10th July 2011, Arrived around 6.30am, it was very calm, hardly a breeze at all, the sea was like a mill pond. Just off shore there was 3 Eiders ( 1 first winter drake) . Although the tide was near high I decided to go to Carters, on the hunch of getting some early autumn waders? There was 9 BL.T.Godwit, 2 Green Sands, and I heard a Wood Sand,but I never saw it!. At the Pools there was a further 35 Bl.T.Godwits,2Whimbrel,209 Curlew ( counted) 3 Med Gulls,two adults with a begging imm. Seen from the sea wall was Buzzard, Marsh Harrier, Hobby, Sparrow Hawk and the very pale Barn Owl all seen flying over back of the marsh, through the course of the morning. Good Bird watching Pete.

Further to the recent post on Goatsbeard / Salsify hybrid (see here) - today I found another variant at the same location. The photo above shows Salsify on the right and the latest hybrid on the the left. The photo below shows Salsify on the right and the original hybrid on the the left. Read the rest of this entry »

Avian highlights at Castle Water over the last few days have included Peregrine, Hobby, Common Buzzard, 9 Green Sandpiper, 8 Common Sandpiper, 6 Little Ringed Plover and 16 Ruff. From the Beach Reserve on the various pits and pools 6 Greenshank, 4 Black-tailed Godwit, 11 Avocet, 3 Whimbrel, Green and Common Sandpipers. At Ternery Pool there are still a few fledged Mediterranean Gulls accompanied by adults and the remains of the Common Tern colony out from Crittall Hide. The quarry viewed from Denny Hide has a lot more activity with many Sandwhich Terns, Common Terns and the occasional Little Tern. 

Brian Ferry (the naturalist, not the singer) and I undertook the annual census of this very rare plant at Rye Harbour yesterday.  Creeping around the shingle on hands and knees was easier on the back than stooping, and was essential as many of the plants this year are tiny due to drought stress. 

In recent years this population has been exhibiting exponential growth, up from 10 plants in 2005 to 3035 last year (as can be seen on the graph below).  As at Dungeness this year, though not to the same extent, the early summer drought has provided a reality check, with numbers halved at 1557 plants.  In the circumstances this was a very good total.

The only downside Read the rest of this entry »