RXwildlife Sightings

Without doubt the highlight of the day off Dungeness was a pod of four Orcas, all likely to be males judging by their dorsal fin size and shapes, which were watched for about 20 minutes in mid-morning as they fed about a mile offshore.

At last a nice fog free morning to appreciate the low water shore, at least 150 Sandwich Tern were roosting and feeding waders included Bar-tailed Godwit, Dunlin, Grey Plover and Knot. A Common Hermit Crab provided additional interest, I think a Netted Dog-welk has provided the home for the crab. Also this morning 700 Golden Plover were roosting on Flat Beach and 165 Mediterranean Gull were on Ternery pool. At Lime Kiln a Little Ringed Plover passed overhead heading for Wader Pool.

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Taking a walk down the strand line today I came across quite a few deceased urchins.  The pile below was gathered from just a metre or two on the beach so there must have been thousands in total.  I believe they are the Green sea Urchin, Psammechinus miliaris, apparantly common to all of Britain’s coasts but probably not frequently seen to this extent on dry(ish) land.

I think this is a sponge called the Sea Orange - Suberites ficus. The texture and colour gives its common name. There were quite a few on the beach this morning, it was an extremely long tide, but the only ones that were orange shaped had lost their outer layer. Read the rest of this entry »

A couple of days ago there were “bunches of black grapes” on the shore. Some of these were rescued and put into the marine tank at Lime Kiln Cottage information centre. Here they have hatched in to tiny and very cute Cuttlefish - about 12mm long. They are facinating to watch through a magifying glass as they change colour, hover and then use their jet propulsion to whizz off… and catch their food.
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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.

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