Recent Sightings
Up-to-date Sightings
Regular daily sightings from the reserve at RXwildlife website.
January 2012
Waders provided the greatest diversity during January, though in general numbers were lower than those recorded in the last few months. The highest counts of both golden plover and lapwing were recorded on the 12th, with 1500 and 500 respectively present on Flat Beach Level, while 88 curlew were recorded here late on the 23rd.
December 2011
A good selection of waterfowl during December included two Smew at Castle Water on the 6th, two Red-crested Pochard here on the 22nd a pair of Pintail on Flat Beach Level on the 26th, up to five Goldeneye on Long Pit and regular sightings of Bittern at Castle Water, with at least three on the 6th.
November 2011
There was at least one Bittern during the month, at Castle Water on the 4th, small numbers of Goldeneye were present on Harbour Farm and the Long Pit, a male Scaup was seen on Long Pit and Ternery Pool and both Red-breasted Merganser and Goosander were present briefly on the Quarry.
October 2011
October saw a good selection of migrants, winter visitors and the last of the summer visitors moving through. In terms of the waders, the most obvious species were Lapwing, and Golden Plover, though good numbers of Curlew were also present, their peak numbers at overnight roosts on Flat Beach or Harbour Farm.
September 2011
In terms of variety, September is a good time at Rye Harbour, as departing summer birds, passage migrants and the first of the autumn/winter visitors coincide. Hence Wheatear and Yellow Wagtail shared the reserve briefly with Whinchat, Stonechat and Redstart, while on the freshwater pits, numbers of Wigeon, Pochard and Teal increased steadily throughout the month.
August 2011
As might be expected, with passage movement building towards the autumn peak, a good selection of species were present on the reserve during August. In the case of waders, the largest numbers were provided by Lapwing, with 500 on the 26th, and Curlew, which peaked at 175 on the 23rd.
July 2011
What a difference a month makes! At the end of June the reserve was still thronging with birds, especially Ternery Pool and the Quarry where upward of 3500 pairs of Black-headed Gull, Sandwich Tern, Common Tern and Mediterranean Gull nested this year, all contributing to a real sea-bird spectacle.
June 2011
It has been a mixed year so far for our breeding birds at Rye Harbour. On the minus side Black-headed Gull and tern productivity appears to have been very low, perhaps due to a combination of predation pressure and weather conditions. Certainly we have seen very few Sandwich Tern fledglings this year, while many of our Little Tern chicks succumbed to the attentions of a Kestrel soon after hatching.
May 2011
May saw the breeding season at Rye Harbour get into full swing, and by the end of the month all of the reserves special breeding species had made a start on raising this year’s compliment of young. Some of these, such as Little Tern, had only just began to nest and were still incubating eggs, others, such as Black-headed Gull, Mediterranean Gull, Ringed Plover, Avocet and, Redshank hatched their first chicks, while yet others, such as Lapwing produced their first fledglings!
April 2011
With the coming of April, the breeding season at Rye Harbour really began to gather pace. This month saw the last of our breeding summer visitors arrive, with, the first Cuckoo on the 16th, the first Little Tern on the 20th and the first Turtle Dove on the 21st, while on the Beach Reserve, Wheatear, Ringed Plover and Oystercatcher had all staked their claims to territories by the end of the month.
March 2011
With the advancing year things continued apace on the reserve during March. On the Beach Reserve numbers of sea-birds on the main colony at Ternery Pool increased steadily, with 200 Sandwich Tern, 280 Mediterranean Gull and 2000 Black-headed Gull present on the 25th, while Lapwing had certainly produced their first eggs by the end of the month.
February 2011
With the increasingly warm weather during February, spring was certainly in the air at Rye Harbour. On the Beach reserve Ringed Plover, Lapwing and Oystercatcher could all be found displaying, with some of the latter already scrape building by the end of the month, while at the Cormorant colony at Castle Water, chicks could be heard squeaking from about mid-month!
