RXwildlife Sightings

Highlights from checking the Little Egret roost at dusk and dawn, 33 Little Egret, Bittern, 5 Ruff, 3 Marsh Harrier, Kingfisher and a Chiffchaff. Highlight from the past few days on the Beach Reserve have included 4 Jack Snipe flushed from behind the Wader Pool. Flat Beach attracted 2800 Golden Plover, 700 Lapwing, 56 Brent Geese, 31 Shelduck, 3 Ruff and 16 Corn Bunting. Harbour Farm pools attracted 370 Curlew and a Woodcock was flushed on Shore Ridges.

Sunset from the viewpoint yesterday

A good selection of birds at Castle Water yesterday highlights included, 900 Common Gull, 3 Ruff, 2 Long-eared Owl, 4 Tree Sparrow, 50 Redwing, 4 Fieldfare, 3 Bullfinch and a Marsh Harrier. Wildfowl were also present in good numbers, 234 Teal, 115 Shoveler, 79 Gadwall, 88 Tufted Duck, 54 Wigeon and 160 Mallard.

Common Gulls at Castle Water yesterday

Highlights this morning were a Bittern from the viewpoint early morning, and TWO Great Northern Diver on Long pit, along with two Goldeneye, 82 Tufted Duck and 76 Pochard. Still good numbers of Golden Plover on Flat Beach, with around 1500 this morning, along with 500+ Lapwing, while a Merlin was hunting over Harbour Farm and 80 Sanderling, 37 Grey Plover and 13 Knot were on the shore.

Highlights this morning, a Bittern gave flight views from the viewpoint at Castle Water, 1500 Golden Plover were roosting on Flat Beach. On Long Pit the released Great Northern Diver is still present along with 2 Goldeneye and good numbers of Tufted Duck,  Pochard and Great Crested Grebes. Yesterday around mid morning a Short-eared Owl (pictured) gave fantastic views perched and in flight on Harbour Farm, and two Raven passed over the Beach Reserve. And probably the same Dartford Warbler from the morning  had made it to the gorse scrub along Narrow Pit.

Highlight this morning was a cracking Dartford  Warbler (pictured) that showed well in the scrub near Lime Kiln Cottage and at least 2500 Golden Plover were in flight over Flat Beach. Elsewhere, 38 Little Egret were counted leaving the roost. Yesterday’s highlights included 3 Bearded Tit and 2 Marsh Harrier from the viewpoint, 8 White-fronted Geese, 5 Brent Geese, 600 Golden Plover, 28 Grey Plover, 440 Lapwing and a Merlin on the Beach Reserve. The Great Northern Diver (second picture) that was released at Castle Water on the 12th was still present on Long Pit yesterday afternoon.

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Highlights this morning included a Grey Phalarope, 24 Turnstone, 10 Dunlin and 150 Lapwing on Flat Beach Flood. Two Peregrine gave fantastic views in flight over Shore Ridges and 111 Curlew were roosting on Harbour Farm pools.

Highlights over the past few days have included, 272 Curlew roosting on Flat Beach, 3 Knot on the wader pool, Firecrest along Narrow Pit, 28 Redpoll, 21 Fieldfare and 16 White-fronted Geese in flight over the Beach Reserve and three Swallow passed over Rye Harbour Village.

This huge bumblebee was found in my moth trap in Rye this morning. It appears to be a queen Bombus terrestris - males and workers are much smaller with whiter ‘tails’. Queens should really be hibernating by now, though this widespread species can maintain active nests quite late in the autumn. The 18 moths of 12 species was also an excellent catch for November and included 2 Red-green Carpets and both Chestnut and Dark Chestnut for comparison. Finally, in addition to the lingering Common Sandpiper on the river and yesterday’s 3 Chiffchaffs and the dragonflies at Northpoint, a flock of 14 Swallows were feeding low over the Love Lane allotments in this afternoon’s gathering gloom.

At Northpoint Pit today I was surprised to find a male Migrant Hawker (Aeshna mixta) still on the wing. Its flight was low and unusually weak but it settled only very briefly, hence the poor photo (click on photo to see it better). Less unexpected in November was a Common Darter. Three Chiffchaffs were feeding together in waterside scrub, and 3 Goldcrests also provided new BTO Winter Atlas records for two tetrads.

Good numbers of wildfowl are now gathering on Long pit a drake Goldeneye (pictured) was a nice find amongst 88 Tufted Duck, 59 Pochard, 18 Gadwall, 17 Shoveler and 42 Great Crested Grebe. A Kingfisher and Green Sandpiper were also seen. Bird of the day though was a ringtail Hen Harrier at Castle Water mid morning and 37 White-fronted Geese passed over Lime Kiln Cottage late afternoon.