Mostly birds and photos from the RX area ( 15 mile radius from Rye Harbour Nature Reserve RHNR, East Sussex )
29 September 2022 This afternoon I had two hours to spare so did a quick Flatbeach circuit at the RHNR. Unknowingly to me it coincided with high tide so lots of water everywhere. Nice to see so many Wigeon back, still in eclipse. There were the usual roosts on the few remaining islands on Flatbeach and a number of Plovers were on show, probably Golden but again the light was so fierce that it was hard to tell. A close-by Redshank showed nice almost full winter plumage.
29 September 2022 Yesterday I headed up into the Hastings Country Park Nature Reserve in the hope of seeing some vizmig. I should have remembered that up there all early morning migration takes place in the two hours after dawn, I did not get there until 9am and it was quiet. Of course the views are great and the Bale House looks fit for purpose but apart from twenty odd Stonechats not much else, though there were Meadow Pipits and Great Spotted and Green Woodpeckers and a Jay. I met John Gowers up there and he had just seen a fine male Dartford Warbler and later we found two more, poor photos into the sun. These warblers are probably around in small numbers all winter maybe coming down to the coast from the Weald, check all the gorse areas. Only a few House Martins were gliding and feeding along the cliffs but we did have one flock of 20 Goldfinches heading east, no doubt the first of many.
I returned home via Pett Pools and again a feeding flock of waders was at the back of the Roadside Pool, 10, of which my estimates vary from 6 to 8 as being Curlew Sandpipers, the rest Dunlin. Very difficult to be accurate even with photos as they never stop feeding. 3 Dunlin did land next to two feeding Blackwits but not sure if they were the ones seen earlier. Alarming news at the Main Pool duck feeding station was that there was only one RbGoose , no sign of the limping one. Rooks continue to impress with iridescence and the Coot flocks are back, only fifty but a sign of things to come. 10 Little Egrets were roosting when I was there.
Addendum 02 October 2022 At the Pools the two RbGeese are back together again, false alarm. The Curlew Sandpipers and recent Little Stint have all moved on just leaving 4 Dunlin.
25 September 2022 Back to Pett Pools. Yesterday I had a quick look while passing ( no camera with me ). At the western end of the Roadside Pool I found one Ruff, one Little Stint, and five Curlew Sandpipers. This morning I returned with my camera just as Mandy of the Marsh came out to feed the Bullocks behind the Pool. All hell broke loose but it soon settled down again and afterwards in the same corner I had one Little Stint and four Curlew Sandpipers. Two further Curlew Sandpipers were over on the back edge with roosting Redshank. However checking the photos later, taken in very harsh sunlight, one of the original four turned out to be a Dunlin, so you can play spot the Dunlin, so there were five Curlew Sandpipers in total as yesterday. Later in the day Jurek had upped the number to seven in total! Impressive and shows what a nice patch of mud will produce at this time of the year. These birds were very busy feeders, never standing still.
20 September 2022 Pett Pools Roadside Pool continues to attract a steady trickle of waders onto the muddy edges. In the last couple of days up to 4 Blackwits, up to 4 Little Stints, 1 Spotted Redshank, several Common Sandpipers, and 1 Curlew Sandpiper have been seen by various observers. Today there were just 1 Little Stint and 1 Curlew Sandpiper feeding with a Dunlin first seen by John Gowers. Unfortunately they were over on the far bank of the Pool so my camera was struggling with the distance so only record shots. Still nice to see. A few Snipe and the usual Curlews and Lapwings were also present as well as three suspicious white headed immature Gulls.
18 September 2022 Just JT and myself at the RHNR this morning. I finally caught up with the homage Red Hut in the car park. At the Discovery Centre a Kingfisher was performing well and a Spoonbill was out on the Salt Marsh. From the Gooders Hide a Knot was close by. Over on Camber Sands, a dog walker probably did not expect to see yet another Spoonbill out on the sands. It came closer to the River Mouth before flying over to land on Flatbeach. About 150 Sandwich Terns were also roosting out behind the gulls. Up to 5 Wheatears were along the fence lines. Further along the beach towards the Mary Standford was another 80 bird Sandwich Tern Roost and unusually up to 40 LesseBBGulls. At Ternery Pool the usual GreaterBBGull was in amongst the Cormorants and a few Wigeon were visible. At the Barn Pools were two Greenshank , 2 LRPs, 4 Stonechats and over on the grassy bank an impressive feeding flock of 21 Red-legged Partridge. A commotion along the pathway drew our attention to a bird of prey taking a small bird. At first we thought Sparrow Hawk but Paul Cherry who was a little further ahead then spotted the bird of prey on a gatepost with its catch. It was a female/juv Merlin holding a dead Meadow Pipit. I managed one photo before it flew off but vegetation was partly in the way. JT was in a better position and his photo is shown just after mine. Finally calling in at Pett Pools, another 2nd winter Yellow-legged Gull was on the far bank of the Roadside Pool.
15 September 2022 My Camera was back in action so I wandered down to Pett Pools this morning. The tide was out and roadworks were underway near the Pools so I did not expect too much. Two Ravens circled overhead and there was a steady passage east around Rye Bay of hundreds of Hirundines as well as one Swift and one Siskin. At the Roadside Pool a Marsh Harrier passed at height and a Blackwit at last showed itself with a clean bill and black tail, but no other waders were visible apart from Lapwings. No Spoonbills today either probably because of the disturbance but four were reported on Flatbeach in the RHNR. A Grey Heron over with the Cormorants was preening its neck I think and needed to hold its wings out to balance, a strange sight. Even though it was low tide there were Gulls roosting. This time three or possibly four white headed, smudgy eyed gulls were present quite unlike the 1st winter Herring Gull in the first Gull photo. The other photos are I assume again of immature Yellow-legged Gulls, all Herring Gull size, unless anyone else has another id.
11 September 2022 Off early to Castle Water this am with AP, JT, and TW but minus camera. I seemed to have flattened the battery overnight so had to bring an old Sony Cybershot out of retirement, hence the poor quality photos below. JT did take pity on me and allowed me to use some of his excellent photos also below. Easy to spot the difference. We started with a fly over Wood Sandpiper, GWEgret, Sparrowhawk, two Snipe, two Marsh Harriers, Shovelers, and skeins of Greylags with many small flocks of Goldfinches and Linnets and a few Swallows moving through. There were many Warblers in the bushes but Castle Water itself was relatively quiet, just Lapwings, 5 Little Ringed Plovers and one Common Sandpiper. A few newly arrived Wigeon were present and we located the long remaining BNGrebe, now in an odd in-between plumage. Up to ten Wheatears were dotted about but only two Whinchats ( ten were seen here yesterday but a clear moonlit night and off they went ). Best birds were two Spotted Flycatchers along a hedge line. A number of odd Beetles ( Golden Tortoise beetles possibly not) were seen and a fine male Willow Emerald Damsel Fly ( now officially known as the Western Willow Spreadwing FFS ). Oddity of the day was an 18 inch Coy Carp in one of the Pools near the Viewpoint. Back at Pett Pools were another two Blackwits, two Common Sandpipers, and two adult LBBGulls.
I have added a further superb photo of the ” Beetle ” taken by Tim Waters TW, definitive id is still needed. Solved it is a Leaf Beetle, Chrysolina banksi, such a boring name.
09 September 2022. This and that this morning, The RHNR was disappointing apart from a GWEgret on the Saltpool, three Wheatears, a few Knot on Flat Beach, a mixed wader roost of Ringed Plover and Dunlin and one Sanderling out by the Mary Standford, and a greedy Little Egret swallowing in one go a decent sized fish. Pett Pools however came up trumps. Pete Rouse had already reported 3 Curlew Sandpipers at the west end of the Roadside Pool so I photographed them when I got there, they were in the company of a few Dunlin and a Blackwit. Cliff Dean was also present and he had just found a stunning 2nd winter into 3rd winter Yellow-Legged Gull up on the opposite bank. A further white headed black eyed gull was roosting further along with Herring Gulls and when it finally got up it looked good for a first winter Yellow–Legged Gull. Two in one day, wow. The last photo is of a juvenile Herring Gull for comparison. Lots of photos.
06 September 2022 News of an adult Yellow-legged Gull at Pett Pools sent me scurrying down ( no sign ) so I checked on the Red-necked Phalarope ( also no sign, it has probably moved on to warmer climes ). The Roadside Pool held a few of the expected waders including 4 Black-tailed Godwits, with very gloopy muddy bills. Whilst talking to Jeff Penfold I saw three white birds leave the Pools heading towards the beach, Little Egrets I assumed. It was only later when I noticed that the three white birds were feeding very closely together that I had another look, not Little Egrets but Spoonbills on their favourite pool adjacent to the moorlog. They were busy feeding away so I could get quite close. All that feeding only seemed to produce small prey that they tossed into the air before swallowing, my guess is that the prey was shrimps. Off shore were about 15 Common Scoters now back for the winter and a distant adult Gannet was seen. On second thoughts those two Godwits look more like Bar-tails, any opinions? No back to square one, Blackwits. Jeff Penfold was also taking photos of the same birds and he had better views of the tails, black , no barring. It was just the excess mud on the bills that was confusing me.
05 September 2022 Another early 6.30am start with AP, JT, and TW at the RHNR yesterday. A Kingfisher was by the Discovery Centre with the usual Curlew. Over on Camber Sands was an impressive flock of 100+ roosting GbbGulls and a Black-tailed Godwit and a Ruff flew in from the east followed by three small flocks of returning Wigeon. A few cronking Ravens drifted past and at the Harbour Mouth Ringed Plover and returning Turnstones were feeding. In fact there were a lot of Ringed Plovers 100+ spread about the beaches. The Ternery Pool was surprisingly quiet but rammed with Cormorants. Heading on to Harbour Farm we picked up a few Wheatears and were amused by a manic Lurcher or Greyhound chasing Gulls along the tide-line. Things looked up at the Harbour Farm Pools with 10 Avocets, a Greenshank, the leucistic Redshank and a possible Curlew Sandpiper but AP says Dunlin, but look at the length of those legs, practically on stilts. A Sparrowhawk disturbed most of the waders for a time. Over near the west end of the Salt Pool were plenty of Yellow and Pied Wagtails and we caught up with five Grey Partridge. On Flatbeach was a distant Sanderling. Note to self, stop taking photos and cropping them to death of birds that are too far away. This happened with both the possible Curlew Sandpiper mentioned earlier and a Redshank in one of the Salt Marsh gullies. Two photos, one looking a bit Spotted Redshank like and the other just Redshank like, both the same bird just the curse of pixilation at extreme camera distances. The dark stripe through the eye just disappeared!
RX COASTAL BIRDS 