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Wild Rye: Discover Our Wetland Wildlife

Bittern in Winter

Wildlife in Depth – Birds

Most people visit the nature reserve to watch birds, and it is the birds where most management effort is concentrated.

Many birds occur here in nationally important numbers, such as Shoveler and Sanderling in the winter and breeding Little Tern and Mediterranean Gull.

A Checklist of the Birds of Rye Harbour can be downloaded here (390KB).

A leaflet about Rye Harbour's Little Terns can be downloaded here (275KB).

There are graphs of some breeding numbers and maximum counts for 1970-2005 in the photolibrary, here.

Below is a brief summary of numbers from the 2004 Annual Report.

Bird Peak Counts 2004

  JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC
LITTLE GREBE 15 28 7 3 4 5 4 13 32 32 23 16
GREAT CRESTED GREBE 14 80 14 23 14 15 25 57 66 56 25 180
CORMORANT 235 113 174 202 241 357 500 233 244 330 222 220
GREY HERON 18 6 1 3 0 4 7 10 13 17 11 10
BITTERN 6 3 3 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 2 3
LITTLE EGRET 29 24 20 11 5 11 18 20 53 46 51 40
MUTE SWAN 65 81 19 21 29 56 64 39 19 28 84 59
GREYLAG GOOSE 5 35 32 30 23 13 59 81 307 41 0 0
CANADA GOOSE 110 104 48 28 17 38 107 204 223 0 69 97
SHELDUCK 11 9 14 27 25 8 0 1 14 41 74 5
WIGEON 390 450 179 0 1 0 0 1 40 130 140 165
GADWALL 61 41 30 16 17 1 0 32 44 31 24 35
TEAL 226 47 27 3 1 0 3 20 40 108 109 52
MALLARD 109 150 66 61 70 59 66 291 247 438 143 223
PINTAIL 3 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 2 13 17 0
SHOVELER 34 39 47 12 9 6 5 7 106 61 92 185
POCHARD 55 136 171 3 3 1 3 1 3 48 139 133
TUFTED DUCK 172 155 184 116 133 82 41 67 63 102 124 183
SCAUP 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 8 14
LONG -TAILED DUCK 0 2 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
COMMON SCOTER 200 180 0 45 0 30 260 50 80 60 160 250
GOLDENEYE 3 6 4 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 2
SMEW 27 12 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 9
RUDDY DUCK 6 10 10 11 12 7 9 16 12 13 4 1
COOT 280 171 145 53 37 142 212 355 511 521 465 447
OYSTERCATCHER 340 200 232 123 129 71 85 136 315 312 306 354
AVOCET 0 1 3 6 6 3 2 0 1 1 0 0
RINGED PLOVER 60 25 15 23 25 12 58 71 56 70 47 22
GOLDEN PLOVER 2000 330 350 156 0 0 8 102 960 2800 3500 0
GREY PLOVER 21 29 4 3 6 2 1 3 17 30 18 51
LAPWING 3500 800 715 47 24 208 350 1200 445 1650 3000 1500
KNOT 3 2 0 16 10 0 1 9 4 3 2 0
SANDERLING 105 85 42 14 45 10 15 20 11 383 77 147
DUNLIN 300 551 240 47 139 10 63 115 167 189 385 350
RUFF 25 33 12 2 3 0 0 13 2 3 8 3
SNIPE 90 11 11 9 0 0 2 8 21 63 66 13
BLACK-TAILED GODWIT 1 0 0 3 65 4 8 21 23 2 0 0
BAR-TAILED GODWIT 0 0 0 142 52 1 3 1 6 1 0 0
WHIMBREL 0 0 0 179 214 0 7 6 1 0 0 0
CURLEW 301 193 109 9 4 3 96 245 305 329 370 147
REDSHANK (inc.estuary) 75 16 32 21 23 28 1 7 9 57 37 24
GREENSHANK 0 0 0 2 1 0 4 18 1 0 0 0
GREEN SANDPIPER 0 0 1 1 0 3 12 10 3 4 1 2
COMMON SANDPIPER 0 0 0 4 4 2 12 15 1 0 0 0
TURNSTONE 26 16 28 31 33 6 14 18 18 19 29 24

Bird Breeding Numbers 1994 - 2004

  1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004
Numbers of pairs
LITTLE GREBE 5 4 4 5 9 8 9 11 10 7 6
GREAT CRESTED GREBE 9 9 10 11 8 5 10 6 6 8 4
CORMORANT 1 0 2 7 45 80 75 107 120 125 132
GREY HERON 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
MUTE SWAN 4 4 5 7 6 4 7 3 6 6 3
GREYLAG GOOSE 3 4 2 0 2 2 2 3 6 7 6
CANADA GOOSE 20 25 30 34 30 11 13 9 15 14 13
SHELDUCK 10 10 10 12 10 8 3+ 3 8 6 3
GADWALL 1 0 3 1 0 1 2 3 1 0 0
SHOVELER 1 2 2 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0
TUFTED DUCK 15 15 15 10 10 10 4+ 7 17 15 12
RUDDY DUCK 4 4 3 3 3 2 0 3 4 6 8
OYSTERCATCHER 20 16 19 23 18 21 20 27 18 25 31
RINGED PLOVER 49 50 40 51 40 51 40 50 40 39+ 41
LAPWING 16 19 16 10 15 11 10 14 15 25 29
REDSHANK 12 13 13 11 9 18 15 17 10 10 13
BLACK-HEADED GULL 300 450 335 350 80 180 33 300 700 800 1075
fledged BLACK-HEADED GULL 150 200 150 60 150 0 0 400 700 1000 1050
HERRING GULL 19 13 13 9 9 9 5 1 2 5 10+
SANDWICH TERN 150 100 12 30 13 26 0 24 150 250 300
fledged SANDWICH TERN 5 3 0 0 12 0 0 3 150 300 400
COMMON TERN 75 130 80 120 120 70 57 40 34 86 105
fledged COMMON TERN 130 300 20 15 180 0 0 55 50 120 175
LITTLE TERN 35 41 30 35 29 24 0 26 19 25 18
fledged LITTLE TERN 15 5 0 4 0 16 0 20 1 31 5
SAND MARTIN 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
YELLOW WAGTAIL 17 23 23 25 12 20 13 11 15 12 12
WHEATEAR 5 8 8 9 8 7 7 7 7 8 10
SEDGE WARBLER 47 45 86 92 50 67 80 52 70 81 104
REED WARBLER 200 200 200+ 200+ 200+ 153+ 200+ 150+ 150+ 120+ 200+
LESSER WHITETHROAT 5 9 7 3 3 5 6 2 5 6 7
WHITETHROAT 20 25 36 36 37 48 45 46 55 62 69
REED BUNTING 41 50 40 40 37 50 40 37 25 64 66
CORN BUNTING 6 4 3 5 5 4 4 4 2 2 5