Highlights this morning included a Wood Sandpiper, two Common Sandpiper and Bearded Tit at Castle Water, Greenshank on the Quarry and Spotted Redshank on the pools next to Lime Kiln Cottage. In addition a juvenile Arctic Tern was feeding among the Common Terns on Long Pit and at least 50 Yellow Wagtail were foraging along the fence line near the old life-boat house.
Plenty of passerine activity on the Beach Reserve and Harbour Farm today, with around 100 Yellow Wagtail foraging along the beach road, several Wheatear near the river mouth, about 100 Sand Martin feeding over the pits and pools, and at least three Whinchat along the fence near Harbour Farm Barns. In addition, the Quarry held a Greenshank, three Knot and a Little Egret while a Green Sandpiper, a Snipe and two Grey Partridge were seen from the Crittall Hide (Ternery Pool)
There seems to have been quite a bit of migrant activity over the last few days, with several species of immigrant turning up in my moth trap. The majority of these seem to be the (largish) micro Rush Veneer, with quite a few White-point (which probably also breeds on this part of the south coast), Dark Sword-grass and Silver Y. Highlight however was the attractive micro Marbled Yellow Pearl (Evergestis extimalis) another scarce resident more usually found as a migrant in southern Britain.
Marbled Yellow Pearl
Desite the cold weather overnight, the good run on migrant moths continued this morning with The Vestal (Rhodometra sacraria). This species breeds in southern Europe and North Africa, and turns up irregularly in Britain as a migrant, sometimes in large numbers (the last one at Lime Kiln was in 2006).
Vestal (Rhodometra sacraria)
Highlight this morning was the migrant micro Cydia amplana (though our recording software comes up with the wonderful English name of Vagrant Piercer). This is another one of those species that has turned up in Britain fairly recently, with the first record in Devon in 1990. Most records have been from south-west England, and as far as I can see this is the first for Rye Harbour, though it did turn up in Icklesham about the same time of year in 2006. The larvae feed inside various nuts such as walnut, hazelnut and acorns and can be something of a pest under certain circumstances.
Vagrant Piercer (Cydia amplana)
Still good numbers of passage birds around today, with the highlights still the two juvenile Black Tern on Long Pit. In addition, there were five Knot and five Greenshank on the Quarry, three Avocet and two Little Tern on Ternery Pool and plenty of Wheatear and Yellow Wagtail along shore ridges. Highlights at Castle Water included at least one Ruff, a Greenshank and both Common Sandpiper and Green Sandpiper visible from the hide.
Looking at one of the brackish pits on Harbour Farm today I came across this fascinating tableau. Below and to the right is a female Flecked General (Stratiomys singularior), laying a mass of bright green eggs. To the left and above is an older, but still unhatched batch of Flecked General eggs, and perching on this like some fat-thighed gargoyle is the parasitic wasp Chalcis sispes. This is a parasitoid of Flecked General larvae, the wasp eggs being laid in either young larvae or well developed eggs. In order to get a ready supply of victims, the female wasp often protects an eggs mass from other females of the same species, fighting back to back with the muscular hind-legs.
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Given that it is turning into a good year for interesting migrants I have been running the moth trap fairly regularly over the last week. Highlights have included yet another Sussex Emerald, a Gem, and a Tree-lichen Beauty (trapped at ‘Green Acres’ on the ridge near Watch Cottage). I have also been turning up several Oak Eggar, including a couple of fantastic rich brown males, and a Honeysuckle Moth, a micro which I haven’t seen before but which also turned up at ‘Green Acres’. Also of interest this week were a Brown-banded Carder Bee (Bombus humilis) at Castle Water, and my first Moss Carder Bee (B. muscorum) feeding on an ornamental shrub at Lime Kiln Cottage.
Male Oak Eggar
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Highlights this morning included a Little Stint among 97 Dunlin on the Quarry, two Raven over the Beach Reserve heading east early morning and four Common Sandpiper on Ternery Pool. Still a few Avocet with young fledglings on Harbour Farm, while up to 10 Little Tern were present over Flat Beach.
Redshank
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