Last night’s Shoresearch at Pett Level found many species, but for me the 2 highlights were - the 2 male Shanny in “breeding plumage” under a rock with no water (nearly black with white lips) and Read the rest of this entry »
Tim Smith - the assistant county ecologist is running a shoresearch event at Pett Level on Tuesday 13th July (this Tuesday!). This is for all who are interested in marine ecology and who may be able to help identifying and surveying this part of the Sussex shoreline. Meeting at 6pm up on the beach wall from the Smuggler’s car park.
Since at least Monday there have been large numbers of the Blue Jellyfish Cyanea lamarckii in Rye Bay. Most are about 15cm diameter. This evening there were hundreds stranded along a short length of the beach. But as Cliff Dean observed “a very pretty jellyfish, but it stings if you’re swimming!” Wikipedia
A cracking early morning and as the mist lifted of the shore a few highlights were found, 2 Black Tern and 5 Little Tern were picked out amongst the many Sandwich and Common Tern. Waders included 6 Grey Plover, 4 Black-tailed Godwit, 5 Knot, 8 Whimbrel and a Common Sandpiper. Masked Crabs were also present in good numbers the one pictured below was stranded on the hard sand and was struggling to bury itself, but when placed in a suitable pool it soon disappeared with only the antennae showing.
Maked Crab Read the rest of this entry »
The Common Seal that has frequented the area recently gave great views along the river across from the Wader Pool Hide. In the second picture below you can see an orange tag on the hind flippers, I think that this individual was possibly released from Mallydams sometime ago.
A walk along the low water shore line at day break produced some interesting finds. A fine Tompot Blenny was stranded in a small pool, the small feathery tentacles around the nostrils and a larger pair on top of the head between the eyes help to id this fish. Also many Masked Crabs (pictured below) were creeping around the shore line, the oval shape of the carapace with four teeth on each side and the extremely long antennae are distinctive features, males can be seperated from females by the long first walking legs. Avian highlights included 2 Arctic and 5 Little Tern roosting on the low water sand and 3 Arctic Skua were chasing and successfully robbing Sandwich Terns offshore.
Tompot Blenny along the shore this morning
This 15cm long fish was found dead this morning on the tide line near the Mary Stanford Lifeboat House. It appears to be a Common Dragonet Callionymus lyra, which lives a life on the sandy sea bed trying to remain hidden and ambush prey – its eyes and gill openings are both on top of the head.
It may have been one of the lowest low tides for the next 5 years, but the east wind made it oh so cold! In a short walk to the sea at Pett Level a small sea urchin test (Psammechinus miliaris?) and brittlestars (Ophiura albida) were found - below.
Curious? click here for BBC report.
Highlights yesterday/this morning have included 2 Sandwich Tern, 15 Gannet, 76 Brent Geese and a Grey Seal offshore. Goldfinches have been a feature with about 300 passing through in small flocks, a group of 30 Swallows were present on Harbour Farm were 6 Redwing, 24 Pied Wagtail and 18 Siskin also passed overhead. A nice find this morning was a Firecrest in bramble scrub behind Ternery Pool.
Grey Seal offshore yesterday
