111 people came along to Guide in a Hide to see some birds; it was great to meet you! William enjoyed some one-to-one bird watching with Christine and then Evie joined in too! Trudi showed us some excellent skill with her little binoculars and really enjoyed ticking 13 birds off of her checklist. Visitors enjoyed close views of Redshank, Skylark, Linnet, Meadow Pipit and Goldfinch. And, as the tide started to come in, Grey Plover, Knot, Oystercatcher and many Dunlin flew in to join the many winter ducks. Our last Guide in a Hide of the year is on 29th December. You will find us in and around Gooders Hide from 10am until 1pm. Please note the time change.
We had a good turn-out of 16 for today’s Friends’ walk to Castle Water, in weather that was grey and cool but clear and very still so that sounds could easily be heard, be they birds, church bells, Sunday motorbikes or the trumpeting of the Marshlink as it approached Rye Station.
In order to reach that part of the reserve, we have to walk for 15 minutes up Harbour Road, which I tend to see as birdless, so sometimes punctuate that part of the trip with information about the village and its history. However this dismissal is unjustified, for there are quite lot of birds to be seen. Apart from marshland species like Gulls and Waders passing overhead, and garden birds like Sparrows, Robins and Blackbirds ,there was this morning a Mistle Thrush broadcasting its rich contralto to the whole neighbourhood from the top of the tallest Sycamore. We hear it every spring, when it can still be heard well down the track to the Discovery Centre, then after a few months’ pause, it sings again from late autumn, really getting under way from the solstice.
Black Redstart
A little further on, a Robin-shaped bird attracted attention as it perched on the roof of an asbestos shed in an overgrown yard. Though anonymous in silhouette, the game was given away when its tail quivered, revealing it as a Black Redstart, a bird which breeds right the way from central China to W Europe, where it finds the Channel a disincentive. So once you cross the water, you can find it in almost every town and farm, but at RHNR we see them only on migration or in winter. It is a scarce breeder in England, preferring industrial and derelict sites to the (similar) rocky mountain habitat where it can be found right up to the snow-line, and a small number of pairs can be found between Cliff End and Hastings Town Centre. By the way, this one wasn’t Black but grey, a female or young male.
While we were watching this little bird, showing its red tail as it flickered around the black anchor across the road, there were Long-tailed Tits and Goldcrests foraging in the roadside Sycamores and Golden Plovers racing overhead.
Black-necked Grebe
We saw or heard 62 species – see the list below (not everyone sees everything) – including Marsh Harriers, Buzzards, Sparrowhawks, a Peregrine, Ravens, flocks of Fieldfares just in from Scandinavia and masses of wildfowl at Castle Water including Shelduck – just back from moulting on safe sand-banks in Heligoland – and a Black-necked Grebe, first noted a couple of days ago. If it is the same individual – and its habits suggest so – it first arrived in March 2021 then sat in very much the same spot for the rest of the year, moulting into glamorous breeding plumage without finding a mate to be impressed by it. The bird remained throughout 2022 until this spring when it vanished – till now. Where has it been over the summer? Did it find love? This is another bird which can be found nesting from just outside Calais right into Central Asia but is scarce in England – mostly in the E & Central areas. It’s another example of how Rye Harbour is On The Edge.
Marsh Harrier
These walks are a convivial way to share information, knowledge and skills with everyone finding something to contribute, from an extra (maybe better) pair of eyes to the latest useful app or experience from different regions. Leaders do their best to make sure everyone sees or hears the birds, learns how to look for and identify them, understands what the birds are doing, where they’re from and where, if anywhere, they’re going.
Despite the awful weather forecast, a group of intrepid SWT volunteers who are all members of The Friends, braved the wind and the rain to show any visible birdlife to 26 members of the public visiting the Discovery Centre and the Gooders Hide.
Following recent vandalism, the Gooders Hide no longer has a door, and as the windows had been left open overnight, it was as wet inside as outside!
Despite curtailing the event early due to the conditions, 25 species of birds were recorded, including a Spoonbill.
Every year since 2016, The Friends have laid a poppy wreath on the memorial they created at the site where Flt/Lt Harry Hamilton was killed when his Hurricane was shot down during the Battle of Britain. (See Harry’s Story)
The memorial is situated 200m SE of Camber Castle, beneath a dome of Oak trees originating from a single sapling planted by Canadian troops in memory of their compatriot shortly after the crash.
Paul Nash – The Rye Marshes, East Sussex (oil on canvas)
Jim Northover came to talk to us about the artist Paul Nash and his association with the Rye area. Paul Nash, who was also well known as a war artist, writer and photographer lived in Rye for a relatively short period 1930-32, however, Rye and the surrounding area heavily influenced his work.
Jim who has a background as a designer, has been fascinated by Paul Nash and has gone to great lengths to research this topic. He gave us an excellent talk which was very well received by the audience and this excerpt from an email afterwards sums up the talk very nicely.
“I’ve never understood Paul Nash’s work and his relevance to our local landscape but the speaker brought his paintings to life in a most remarkable way. This was a brilliant afternoon.”
Eleven of us turned up to enjoy this month’s beautifully sunny and warm walk around Flat Beach. We had already enjoyed views of a Spoonbill sweeping the shallow water of a pool on the saltmarsh when we came across a Dartford Warbler in the brambles at Cuckoo Corner. One or two of these little heathland birds winter on the reserve in most years though it’s not clear where they come from. Not Dartford, certainly, though that’s where the first type-specimens were “collected” (ie shot) in the late 18th century. (Actually it was Bexleyheath, at that time a desolate area still frequented by highwaymen.) The nearest few pairs breed not far away at Hastings Country Park.
Dartford Warblers are long-tailed, skulking scrub-birds, usually hard to see well and they either hide or flit from bush to dense bush but we didn’t have to wait too long before it perched up on a Hawthorn, showing off its grey-brown upper-parts, deep pink breast and red eye in the sunshine.
This and the spoonbill were new species for some on the walk and we then searched for – but failed to find – something even scarcer: a Grey Phalarope which had been present for the previous two days. This is an arctic-breeding wader which winters well out in the Atlantic but was one of many oceanic birds driven onshore by recent storms. It had been on a flooded field which remains unnamed on the Picturemaps Tea-towel on sale in the Discovery Centre (on which all other known sites are identified). It has been suggested that the adjacent “Pool With No Name” might be called the “Sand Martin Pool” on account of the wall-with-holes installed there years ago to encourage them to nest. However, they have never shown it any interest and it’s now completely underwater.
We don’t just concentrate on scarce species; we saw a lot of other birds – more than 50 species – including several Stonechats, a Kingfisher and hundreds of varied waterbirds, all of which noisily took flight at the detonation of the 11 o’clock Armistice Day maroon.
After the wind and heavy rain of the previous day, we had brilliant, calm and remarkably warm conditions for our Friends’ walk on Sunday, which took us beyond Salt pool as far as Barn Pools then across to the beach. We saw a fantastic variety of birds, with very good views of many.
Other people we met expressed surprised that Swallows were still dashing through in late October but the 2021 Sussex Bird Report cites December 5th as the 10-year average last date (while in that year, the last Swallow was seen on Dec 31st!) From the car park we had already seen House Martins over the village (10-year average, November 20th).
Duck numbers (at least Mallard, Wigeon & Teal are building up on Salt Pool) but the real drama there was provided by hunting packs of Cormorants and mixed herons (Grey Heron, Little & Great Egret) corralling fish in the shallows then all suddenly decamping to a new location with a great flapping of black, white & grey wings. 3 Great Egrets, with long, snaky white necks and big yellow beaks, took little notice of us as we passed them; it was hard to believe that they were very rare here till less than 20 years ago. On the ground nearby we had close views of 2 beautiful Golden Plovers.
Another summer migrant still present, mostly alongside Narrow Pits, was Chiffchaff. We must have seen 10, especially in the company of roaming bands of Long-tailed Tits (more than 20 of these following the stream by the holiday park). But no “last date” is given for Chiffchaffs since, while some proceed south, others stay for the winter.
Overhead, we could frequently hear calls from Siskins and Redpolls but against the bright blue sky they were very hard to see, like the Sparrowhawk which passed low at high speed but unlike a Marsh Harrier circling up in the sunlight. The conifers by the Barns often provide cover for Goldcrests and, with a bit of patience, we were able to pick out 3 of them moving through the dark foliage.
From Crittall Hide, we were alerted by the angry croak of a couple of Crows to a brown young Peregrine they were persecuting high above Ternery Pool and as we watched them twisting and turning, we also picked out couple of distant Buzzards.
We saw/heard 69 species, though not everyone saw or heard all of them, while other people on the reserve recorded at least a dozen in addition. To see the list, click on the link below:
During the afternoon of ‘Friends’ day on Saturday 14th October, former warden Chris Bentley gave an excellent talk in the Discovery Centre on ‘Gardening for Insects’ to members of The Friends.
Chris is well known both locally and nationally for his passion and expertise relating to insects. Both of these aspects came through in his talk which was very well received by the audience.
His comprehensive talk included facts about the staggering numbers of insects that can be found in gardens, including common insects that we all may be able to identify – perhaps with a little help from technology! He also talked about what insects need and gave suggestions for lots of insect friendly plants and landscape features that can benefit insects.
The importance of insects cannot be underestimated and potentially catastrophic, recent declines are well known and publicised. The BTO suggest that the gardens of the UK make up an area approximately the size of Suffolk, therefore what we do in our gardens is important.
Chris’s talk provided lots of inspiration and as Tesco says ’Every little helps!’
Six of us joined the Friends’ 08.30 Walk beneath a pure blue sky full of lark song. Swallows streamed across the salt marsh where the dazzling low sun raked rusty samphire and glaucous purslane while silhouetted Avocets swept the shallow pools.
As the Swallows are leaving, other birds arrive: Four Blackbirds could have been arrivals (especially one flying high over the village) and we saw about ten Stonechats around Flat Beach.
On Salt Pool, just beyond grazing Wigeon sat a solitary Brent Goose, but our attention was directed more towards the spectacle of 2 Kingfishers which often hovered for several seconds at a time, their backs flashing in the sunshine.
It’s always fun to estimate, then try counting, the long line of Cormorants roosting on Ternery Pool; the results vary but come out at around 350.
A last departing Wheatear consorted with Linnets among silvery grasses on the shingle, a vanguard of Golden Plovers could be heard piping and the first Rock Pipit of winter squeaked over the Discovery Centre.
Members came along to the Discovery Centre to get an update on Friends’ activities and to elect committee members for the next year. The new Reserve Site Manager, Paul Tinsley-Marshall, introduced himself to the meeting. We look forward to working with him to support the Reserve.
The highlight was the award of Honorary Life Membership to four very special people, who have worked tirelessly over many years for the Reserve and the Friends – Barry and Anne Yates, Cliff Dean and Chris Bentley. You will still see them around, enjoying the Reserve and joining Friends’ events. Thank you to all of them – such hard acts to follow.
