A special thanks to Sussex Wildlife Trust, Friends of Rye Harbour Nature Reserve and Flag Ecology for their contribution to the funding of the new RX-wildlife website.
May 23, 2013 at 16:55 One of the events during next week's RX Wildlife Festival is an Afternoon Tea Walk on Thursday afternoon.
If you'd like a guided walk around the nature reserve, followed by tea (or coffee) & cake at Avocet and a perusal of the wildlife exhibition in the gallery, please book your place by emailing rhnroffice@sussexwt.org.uk.
Charge: £8 includes tea & cake.
May 23, 2013 at 9:40 Last night at Brede High Wood there were 4-5 Nightingales singing in the usual place, competing at first with multiple Song Thrushes and later with Tawny Owls!
There were a couple of Siskins (they have bred here in the past), fewer Garden Warblers than usual, but the really exciting sighting was of a churring Nightjar!
Woodland Trust management has created suitable habitat which they seem to have been slow to occupy and, although I had a brief view of one 2 years ago, this is my first indication that they may once more be breeding in the wood after an absence of some decades.
The Woodland trust is holding an interesting course on June 1st on recording wildlife electronically.
May 22, 2013 at 23:13 A not very welcome addition to the Romney Marsh flora may have been found at Dungeness today. Floating Pennywort Hydrocotyle ranunculoides is another very invasive aquatic waterweed, introduced to the UK through the water gardening trade. It is reputed to be able to grow 20 cm a day and can form dense mats of vegetation clogging water bodies and causing de-oxygenation.
The plant is similar to the native marsh pennywort but has kidney shaped leaves rather than parasol shaped leaves, and fleshy floating stems with roots emerging at the nodes. The plants I saw today did not form dense mats, but the kidney shaped lobed leaves can be seen clearly in the centre of the picture below, although leaf shape was rather variable.
Hopefully the water body, being shingle based, will be relatively nutrient poor and restrict its growth, but it could become quite a pest, especially if it finds its way into ditches.
NB I have not seen this plant before and the plants I saw had leaves of variable shape, so I am hoping my identification is not correct. For the moment it is probably best to be vigilant incase this species is on the loose. It is easily spread as stem fragments.
May 21, 2013 at 12:04 Great to see the first three broods of Avocet chicks on the move across Harbour Farm this morning. Last year was a complete flop for all the breeding pairs due to predation at the nesting stage, but fencing erected around two of the islands last autumn on Harbour Farm has at least given them a chance to complete incubation. The chicks will not have it easy though as their parents march them away from the nest site in search of feeding areas, Flat Beach and the new saltmarsh are looking favourite destinations at the moment. This years crop of Black-headed Gull chicks have also been hatching at Ternery Pool since last Friday, Lapwing chicks are also present around some of the pools on Harbour Farm.
May 21, 2013 at 9:50 Over the last 5 days I have run my Fairlight garden moth trap on three apparently suitable nights, but have caught just three moths- a Twenty Plume, a Brindled Pug and a Great Prominent [I catch these annually, last nights moth was quite worn, the one pictured was caught in 2008]. This is pretty dire, and does not bode well for the RX wildlife event in Hastings Country Park NR on June 2. Please keep an eye on this website if you are thinking of coming along to this event, there is still time for things to improve , but if not it may be cancelled...
