RXwildlife Sightings

a frozen quarry
The freezing weather continues with extensive covering of snow from Sunday, but there is till some open water and the higher tides are now defrosting much of the old and new saltmarshes. I found a freshly dead Redshank today beside a ditch at Castle Water, no marks on it and still felt warm, but very, very thin with a sharp breast bone (= little flight muscle left). It weighed just 80 grams whereas the BTO range is 115-195g.
Survival of the fittest.
Tomorrow’s forecast looks a bit warmer…

Highlights from the Beach Reserve and Harbour Farm over the last few days have included 70 Skylark and 45 Meadow Pipit scratching a living around the thawed areas of Harbour Farm. The unfrozen ditches have also provided feeding and roosting opportunities for Spotted Redshank, Green Sandpiper, Kingfisher and several Pintail. Elsewhere a Merlin and Peregrine gave great views in the winter sunshine and snow around Ternery Pool, two Stonechat were also present there amongst the bramble scrub. At least 800 Golden Plover and 55 Curlew have roosted on the new saltmarsh area and Flat Beach. (Also of note two Firecrest were again in the scrubby area along the footpath north of the viewpoint).

In a walk from Cliff End to Castle Water yesterday we found 84 bird species including Brent & Whitefronted (but no Pinkfooted) Geese, 2 Bitterns, Woodcock, Ruff, Green Sandpiper, Goldeneye, Pintail, Water Rail, Marsh Harrier, Med Gull and Bearded Tit.
Large numbers of Song Thrushes, Blackbirds and Redwings were arriving at Toot Rock as the mist cleared and, as mentioned in yesterday’s post, Dunlin were widely distributed as well as Snipe.
See more here

As elsewhere the cold conditions have mixed things up a bit, mainly at Castle Water where the frozen margins, smaller water bodies and ditches have concentrated good numbers of wildfowl onto the open water of the main pit. This morning at least 900 Wigeon, 400 Teal, 135 Shoveler and 200 Gadwall were present. Woodcock have also been more conspicuous in recent days with three birds this morning still out in open ground at day break with one narrowly escaping from one of four hunting Marsh Harrier. Several Woodcock were also present/flushed along the footpaths on the Beach Reserve Yesterday. Additional highlights from a day break walk around Castle Water included 3 Bittern (two from the hide and one inflight from the viewpoint), 4 Smew (including one drake), 39 Snipe, 38 Dunlin were unusual out from the hide , 7 White-fronted Geese, Barn Owl and 2 Firecrest.

A few highlights from Castle Water since Monday, 3 Firecrest, 3 Bittern, 18 Little Egret, 2 Marsh  Harrier and at least 6 Water Rail.
TODAY highlights were 13 Goldeneye and a Black-necked Grebe on Long Pit, and two redhead Smew on Narrow Pit.

4 avocets frantically feeding today in the pools of the new saltmarsh near Lime Kiln Cottage.

A Great White Egret flew over the Beach Reserve at about 15:45 this afternoon. It was observed heading west for a while before dropping down in the region of Narrow Pit.

At Rye Harbour Nature Reserve the main threat to ground nesting birds is predation from fox and badger, so we try to exclude them with fences. Some of the fences end at ditches and we extend these out into deep water. But it seems this is not keeping out all the badgers! In this video one is swimming around the end of the fence, so we will have to extend it soon.

Elsewhere the new saltmarsh is currently being fortified with extra wire mesh clipped to the bottom of the fence to deter fox and badger digging underneath and we are hoping this will lead to a bumper crop of young redshank and lapwing in the spring.
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Highlights at Rye Harbour over the last few days have included, on the Beach Reserve, Spotted Redshank and Merlin, and on Harbour Farm at least five Goldeneye (including one or two males) and three Bearded Tit in front of Watch Cottages. At Castle Water, highlights were six Black-tailed Godwit, five Ruff, three Marsh Harrier, three Red-crested Pochard (two males), at least two Bittern and a Barn Owl.

Red-crested Pochard

Highlights over the last couple of days have included, at Castle Water, two Bittern, two Marsh Harrier, six Black-tailed Godwit, five Ruff and a pair of Pintail, while best of the bunch today were at least two Merlin on Harbour Farm, the Spotted Redshank on Ternery Pool and a Bar-tailed Godwit on Flat Beach Level.

Merlin