Rye Harbour and Pett Level
A planned trip to Rye Harbour with two friends yesterday gave me the luxury this time of being driven. A detour through the pretty Brede Valley saw the only house martins of the day hawking over the marshes and reed beds. Yellowhammer was glimpsed briefly and a male reed bunting was singing in the reeds. A pair of little egret flew over. It was still too early in the morning for the hoped for raptors. So on to Rye Harbour.
A male kestrel and swifts were seen over the carpark. The walk along the river saw the only turnstone of the day on the wooden river barrier. The first of the jolly ringed plovers were seen here too. On the walk, a long one, to the hide we would see curlew, oystercatcher and dunlin poking about in the harbour sand.
I spotted a wheatear:t: , first a very young juv, a paler version of its parents with a speckley breast but with the characteristic upright stance. Then an adult female was seen. Wheatears are very scarce breeders in Sussex and Rye Harbour is one of the few breeding places, may be the only one, so I felt privlidged to see these two today. We would later see a small flock of 5 or 6. On the walk towards the hide mipits, linnets, skylark and whitethroat were seen. And a constant procession of common and sandwich terns with an unending supply of fish in their bills, fish they'd caught in the sea and were taking to their youngsters.
The hide overlooking the aptly named Ternery Pool provided excellent views of the many many nesting common and sandwich terns. This mixed colony appear to have had a very good year with many healthy and well grown chicks:-O , some of the older ones attempting to catch their own food now. The adults are quarrelsome, pestering each other for their latest catches. Med gulls were seen here too, they may be breeding but it was hard to tell which chicks belonged to who among all the terns and black headed gulls. Several ringed plover and a single common sandpiper were also seen.
In a really dramatic moment, the terns and gulls were sent up by a male kestrel. They mobbed him but he pounced, no need for hovering among this easy prey, and he flew off with what looked like a tern chick, disappearing behind some bushes.
We next headed towards the beach, my friend heard what he thought was a yellow wagtail, then I spotted a juv being fed by mum!:-O One of those magical birding moments and for me the highlight of the day.:t: I think Rye may be the only breeding place in Sussex for yellow wags, may be others though. We hung around this bit of shingle for awhile and think there was a family group. My friend spotted a male but I missed him. On to the beach where the receeding tide provided ample food for curlew, oystercatchers and dunlin. We watched the tern plunging for food and found 3 little tern among them.:t:
The long walk back was hard on my old lady knees, feel like such a wuss,:-C but we then decided to visit Pett Level on the way home, don't have to walk much there so I was up for it. Hundreds of lapwing here now, they seem to have had a very successful breeding year with juveniles looking more like their parents than they did 3 weeks ago. Avocets, redshank, ringed plover, little grebe, grey heron and shelduck were all here too. A look seaward and we spotted over 100 common scoter quite near the shore. The cliffs at the west end beckoned next, very low tide now, and 2 little egrets and about 20 curlew, many pretty juvs looking a bit yellowy in the afternoon sun, were feeding in the rock pools. The scoters spotted earlier suddenly all took flight, I suspect because a boat got too close, in a spectacular way and we were now able to see that there were probably over 200. Nesting fulmars are on the cliffs but we couldn't see any chicks.....getting a bit late now I would have thought.
Altogether over 60 species seen today for me, finishing off with a sparrowhawk on the way home. And a few decent pictures.
Joanne
