Rye Harbour Nature Reserve

Jayne and I have had a week in East Sussex, staying in Rye Harbour. Whilst there, we had a couple of walks around the Sussex Wildlife Trust's Rye Harbour Nature Reserve.

Our first walk, with the ranger, on 27th July, saw us visit the shingle ridges and scrapes. We were introduced to a wide range of interesting flora, and also spent time looking at birdlife, including dozens of Dunlin, 1Knot, 2 Curlew Sandpiper, Redshank, Curlew and Whimbrel. There were also several Black-headed Gulls and Common Terns (adults and juveniles) still present. Whilst there, Jayne also spotted a small bee that turned out to be a Sharp-tailed Bee (Coelioxys conoidea).

Sharp-tailed Bee

We had a second walk around this morning, and this time we visited the Castle Water side of the reserve. This area is very different, consisting of large areas of reedbed, and deeper lakes. Here we saw: Mallards, Coots, Mute Swans, Greylag Geese, and then.....a juvenile Green Woodpecker, a Kingfisher (1), a Great White Egret and at least 2 juvenile Bearded Tits!!

Although it was quite overcast we also managed to see a few insects including Gatekeeper, Red Admiral, Painted Lady (1), Common Carpet (moth), Brown Hawker, Common Blue Damselfly, Small Red-eyed Damselfly, Volucella inanis (hoverfly), Common and Ruddy Darter.

Common Carpet

We also managed to spot 3 Marsh Frogs (a new species for us both), a non-native amphibian from Europe, that was introduced into Kent in 1935, and has set up feral populations in the south east.

Marsh frog

Linacre Nestbox and Butterfly Update

As you know, this year's nestbox season at Linacre has been our best ever (see here for details), and yesterday I went down to check the boxes to see if the chicks had all managed to fledge successfully.

I'm very pleased to say that out of the 232 pulli that were ringed by me and other members of the Sorby Breck Ringing Group, only 5 had failed to fledge! That gives us a fledging rate of 98.2%, which compares very nicely with the 99.4% fledging rate last year, when 166 birds were ringed. I didn't have time to check on the Mandarin Box, so I'll check that soon.

After checking the boxes, I had a walk around all the 3 reservoirs. The bird life was very quiet, so I decided to look at a new area of wildflower meadow that is being developed by the Rangers, near Spire View. The sun had come out when I got there, and I managed to count a good number of butterflies on the flowering knapweeds: Peacock 11, Small Copper 1, Ringlet 1, Comma 3, Meadow Brown 10, Gatekeeper 6, Small Skipper 1, Green-veined White 2 and a day-flying moth, Common Carpet 1.

Green-veined White on Knapweed

New Moth for Linacre

A quick half an hour at Linacre this morning gained me an addition to the moth list when I found this beauty perched in a tree in the ringing area. Its a Common Carpet, which, as the name suggests, is a common moth found in a range of habitats, throughout England. More information here.

Common Carpet (nearly in focus!)

 

 Whilst on site, I also spotted at least 10 Ringlets, 1 Small Tortoiseshell, 1 Speckled Wood, 1 male Common Blue Damselfly, 1 Meadow Brown and this Black and Yellow Longhorn Beetle.

Black and Yellow Longhorn Beetle