Rye Harbour (8 July)
At the start of the week the forecast for Rye Harbour on Saturday 8th July was for unbroken sunshine and temperatures around 27 degrees but by the day before the trip, that had changed to thundery showers around lunchtime so weather expectations were somewhat mixed.
The plans to either walk the short circuit back to the discovery centre or the long route taking in Castle Water were disrupted somewhat by the news that two roseate terns had been seen from the Crittall Hide, which is on neither route, on the Friday afternoon. We were advised that the most likely time to see the terns was around high tide, at quarter past three, so It was decided to walk round to Crittall Hide and then one group would visit Parkes and Denny Hides before returning to Crittall Hide to await high tide, whilst the other group would visit Castle Water in the hope of seeing the three species of sandpiper reported from there.
An uncomplicated journey down to Rye had provided several red kites and a buzzard and Rye Harbour village was reliable for collared doves and house martins as usual. As we entered the reserve we could hear the first of many skylarks singing and saw a meadow pipit, linnets and, despite initially being well hidden, a male reed bunting was seen as it flew off. On the first salt marsh there was a small flock of very vocal avocets that included two young birds and our only curlew of the day was seen in flight.
Having briefly stopped at the Discovery Centre for a disappointingly out of date species list for the reserve, we moved on to Gooders Hide for a better view over the salt marsh. Many species appeared to have had a good breeding season as there were lots of young birds around. More avocets with young of various ages as well as oystercatchers, ringed plovers and redshank and their offspring. It was great to see good numbers of juvenile black headed gulls, in a bewildering array of unfamiliar plumages, especially given the reports from around the country of how badly colonies have been affected by avian flu. There was a smallish flock of Sandwich terns with several juveniles sat out on the grass, small numbers of little terns with at least one young chick and a few common terns, as well as the odd great black backed and Mediterranean gulls and several little egrets. A very intriguing tern with a blackish bill was seen, however it was in a slight dip and only gave a very brief sight of it’s tail streamers. It did seem a good possibility for a roseate tern but unfortunately as we changed vantage point it flew off. It, or another bird was then (re)located but again it was in a distinctly unhelpful location and looking away from us and had to remain as a ‘possible’.
As well as the birds there were good numbers of butterflies around including a painted lady, red admirals, lots of gatekeepers, a marbled white, small copper and green veined whites.
In the rock boulders around the river mouth a juvenile wheatear was busily feeding making it difficult to locate between the boulders but it or another, eventually showed well on the pillbox whilst off shore there was a feeding flock of terns and gulls and a single swift flew through.
Walking to Crittall Hide there was plenty of Viper’s Bugloss as well as Sea Carrot and Mullein either side of the road and a constant passage of terns overhead, either flying out to sea to fish or returning with their catches. Directly in front of the hide there was a flock of approx. 35 Sandwich terns, a mixture of adults and juveniles, as well as a couple of adult Mediterranean gulls. Further away there were a few adult and juvenile common terns as well as a couple of early returning common gulls and a pair of shelducks with their quite small ducklings.
The long walk round to Castle Water wasn’t very productive with only the odd whitethroat and swallow, calling cetti’s warbler and singing reed warbler in the bramble bushes and reeds, approx. 50 mute swans, coots and a single pochard on the Long Pit and small numbers of rooks and jackdaws as we approached the Castle. From the hide itself there was a total of 3 green sandpipers as well as 1 common sandpiper but unfortunately no sign of the hoped for wood sandpiper. There was also a single avocet as well as a few lapwing and large numbers of cormorants along with a couple of teal and a gadwall. A similarly long walk back to the car park was relatively quiet with moorhen, long tailed tit and sedge warbler and a pair of distant marsh harriers added to the day list and a green woodpecker heard.
Denny Hide had good numbers of common terns with juveniles of various sizes present. It was a hive of activity with adults coming and going with food for their young and an occasional eruption of the flock as they saw off a marauding herring gull.
The group that returned to Crittall Hide spent a couple of hours waiting for high tide and the hoped for return of the roseate terns but to no avail, instead adding a dunlin and a common sandpiper to their day list as well as a distant marsh harrier.
Gallingly, as we began to get onto the minibus, twitter was updated to say that a roseate tern had been seen from Crittall Hide at 16.35, only 30 minutes after the group had had to leave to get back to the pickup point !
by Andy Roberts