RXwildlife Sightings

At Camber Castle the yellow Wallflowers are now in full bloom , and they look their best and have a very strong fragrance. The castle is open (2-5pm) today, Sunday and Monday… see details here

You have until the end of the month to enter the RX wildlife photo competition, so Easter might offer you the time and opportunity to get out there and capture a winning image. Submitted entries can be seen at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/37042310@N08/sets/72157616223738606/

It is always a special moment when finding a clutch of eggs, they look so perfect in the nest - not surprising then that egg collecting became so popular and still continues as a threat to rare birds. This clutch of Lapwing was found yesterday and will have to survive three weeks of Carrion Crows, Fox, Badger and other danger before producing tiny chicks…

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This tiny member of the cabbage family (or crucifer = it has 4 petals) is now in full bloom in 2 habitats. Grassland on coastal shingle and along roadside verges (where salt is applied annually). I noticed this weekend that the A259 between Rye and Winchelsea has a white haze of this plant, but the photographs are from a safer Rye Harbour. The flowers are not pure white, but have a lilac tinge.

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Today in Hastings the weather was misty and cold, I didn’t expect to see many birds during my walk. But I was pleasantly surprised. At the viewpoint at the cliff top at Ecclesbourne Glen I watched a Raven. It chased the crows from their perches on the cliff face and chased them round the sky. Then they all swirled round in the air together until the Raven went for a rest. It then returned and repeated the process. At one time there was a fulmar, raven and several crows and a few herring gulls in the sky at one time. The raven chased a herring gull and was surprisingly agile in the air for such a big bird. It looked about twice the size of the crows and the views were very close - spectacular.
Richard Price by e-mail

We are working with cameraman Ken Lawson to produce widescreen HD video on a variety of nature reserve subjects. He has only just started, but has made this seven minute film available …

OUR COUNTRYSIDE AND WILDLIFE

DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY COMPETITION 2009

Organised jointly by the Rye and District Camera Club and Rye Harbour Nature Reserve, this competition is all about showing off our local countryside and wildlife of Rye and the surrounding countryside from Hastings to Hythe.

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This morning a calm Rye Harbour was a very noisy place with hundreds of birds displaying. One of the distinctive sounds was the “yodelling” of Redshank, produced during their quivering display flights - listen here. I have yet to capture a photograph of this flight, but now the birds regularly stand as “sentinels of the marsh” on fence posts. Close to the red-roofed hut they are so used to people that it is easy to photograph them in their breeding plumage.

We had two Chiffchaffs singing in the garden here in Peasmarsh yesterday, and my  wife saw the first Orange-Tip butterfly.

Chris Drew by e-mail

Last night the Marshmallow plants growing at Rye Harbour Nature Reserve featured briefly on the BBC program fronted by ethnobotanist James Wong. He produced a remedy for sore throats with the roots of Marshmallow, and also emphasised that you should not dig up wild plants, but grow your own from seed. Click here to watch program.