Perfect weather and the perfect venue for this mornings event. Over delicious coffee and pastries, served from the Lime Kiln Café, five Sussex Wildlife Trust (SWT) and Friends of Rye Harbour Nature Reserve volunteers gave a personal bird-watching experience to 10 lovely visitors.
We were able to discuss and point out birds such as Curlew, Redshank, Little Egret, Cormorant, Linnet and Meadow Pipit and enjoy many Swallows and House Martins flying high and low over the saltmarsh, grabbing their last meals before leaving our shores.
The GIAH team comprises volunteers from SWT and the Friends.
Guide in a Hide days are always joyous days. But this event was very special as an Osprey turned up around lunchtime and sat nicely in front of the Gooders hide for 30 minutes or so. As word spread, the GIAH team were not only able to show it to visitors from the hide but also visitors from the Discovery Centre – they could see it through the telescope!
Photo credit Paul Cherry
The numbers of visitors who have come along to GIAH since our first event in August 2021 has almost reached 5000, which is amazing! And our feedback is always good, as you can see below!
On the morning of 21st August 2023, a group of Friends spent three hours looking up, down and all around to find and record as many different species of flora and fauna on the reserve as possible. The Reserve was split into sections and each team designated an area that suited their area of expertise.
95 species of birds were recorded, which included Wheatear, Whinchat, Spotted Flycatcher and Yellow Wagtail. In addition, over 150 different plant species were recorded, including Buckwheat, which was a first for the reserve!
For invertebrates, two moth traps ran overnight in different locations and produced over 70 different species. Bees and butterflies, including several Brown Argus, were also recorded. Other notable recordings included the Scarce 7-spot Ladybird, Short-winged Conehead, a colony of Mottled Grasshopper and this wonderful Superb Dayglower hoverfly (Xanthogramma pedissequum).
Photo credit Theresa Turner
Plants are often overlooked as you wander along, but whoever looks at galls on plants? Well, one of the team did, and even identified the culprit! Wild Carrot galls are caused by the midge Kiefferia pericarpiicola.
Photo credit Ralph Hobbs
Between us, we were able to record a snapshot of what was on or flying over the Reserve that morning. Not too scientific maybe, but recording is so important, and usually throws up some nice surprises.
A really enjoyable three hours was had by all who took part.
On our Open Day 0830 walks round Flat Beach we’d normally expect see around 50 bird species but today, with most breeders dispersed and winter birds still to arrive, we found just 35.
Nonetheless, it was a beautiful sunny, breezy morning with clear light and excellent visibility. Two of the group were first-timers and so enjoyed picking out migrant Common Sandpipers and lingering Common Terns as well as practising counting a scuttling band of House Sparrows and lined-up Cormorants.
From Parkes Hide, where the waters of Ternery Pool were an extraordinary green, we shared great close views of Little Egret & Little Grebe with a visiting family. We could hear calls of Curlew & Whimbrel, an overhead Dunlin and a rushing flock of Ringed Plovers.
As usual on summer walks, we spent some of the time learning and revising plants, such as Wild Carrot, Wild Parsnip and Red Hemp-nettle.
Returning along the riverside path, we saw Wheatears perching on fence posts and a human perched on the roof of the Soon-To-Be-Even-Redder-Roofed Hut*.
*Please note that the Red-roofed Hut is privately owned and is NOT part of the Reserve.
The Guide in a Hide activity involves a team of volunteers, made up mainly of Friends members, sharing telescopes and binoculars with visitors, to give really close up views of the birds on the reserve, and explain a little about their behaviour and migration routes.
Saturday 22nd July saw a group of 10 Rye Harbour Nature Reserve volunteers run another successful Guide in a Hide between 10am and 3.30pm.
This time we engaged with at least 171 adults and 50 children. With the assistance of our binoculars and telescopes, we were able to show visitors a wide range of birds found outside the Discovery Centre and the Gooder’s Hide.
In total 27 species of bird were seen during the day.
At one point people were queuing up to see a nearby curlew outside the Discovery Centre and a harassed oystercatcher, with a hungry youngster in tow all day, provided non-stop viewing in the hide.
A fly-by peregrine and avocets feeding by swinging their bill side to side provided interest to many.
We made the July 2023, 833 Lottery Draw on Sunday 9th July. Thank you to our hardworking Lime Kiln Cafe assistant, Alli Elliott, for pressing the buttons on the Lottery machine.
We had another excellent talk on the afternoon of Saturday 8th July. This time from Michael Howard who is a Ranger for the National Trust and came to speak to the Friends of Rye Harbour about Winchelsea Wildlife.
Michael has worked for the National Trust in Winchelsea for 6 years and along with another member of staff and six volunteers is responsible for caring for, monitoring and enhancing the nature value of 1,100 acres of varied habitat in and around Winchelsea.
His very interesting and informative talk focused on the amazing variety of birds, mammals, butterflies, dragonflies, and bees to be found on this National Trust land and the huge task involved in working to make the area even better for wildlife and people. Michael’s stunning photography gave us an insight into the identification, and also the challenges of accurate identification, for monitoring the rare bees and dragonflies that are to be found in the area. His fantastic trailcam footage showed us aspects of wildlife and behaviour that largely go unnoticed. He has set-up several community projects, such as moth trapping in Winchelsea, a Winchelsea wildlife group, and with his group of volunteers, is involved in making and erecting various bird boxes to help with Barn Owl and Swift conservation in the local area.
Thank you to Michael for a wonderful talk and we wish him well with his future plans for the area.
We have just completed our three Friends’ Sound Workshops, experimenting with a variety of commercial and improvised recording devices to capture the natural sounds of the reserve. We first concentrated on grasses and birdsong on the saltmarsh and alongside the stream, then the raucous chorus of nesting terns from Denney Hide. Finally, we listened to the recordings and looked at how they could be edited using the Audacity app.
Course leader, Mary Hooper says:
The workshops for FRHNR were a new challenge of me in terms of my work as a sound artist and I wasn’t sure who would take part or what they would expect. Having Ezra Gray leading the first session was very rewarding and great fun, and thank you Ezra for sharing so much knowledge with us.
In the second and third sessions we experimented with different microphones and shared ideas skills and knowledge and made some plans for future development.
I enjoyed every session and was inspired by all the talent and skill in the group so thank you for inviting me to lead these workshops.
We hope to plan more in the future, building up a community of expertise along with an archive of sounds.
Today I had the pleasure of leading 21 Friends of Rye Harbour NR around Flat Beach to watch the newly arrived nesting birds and a couple of stopping migrants.
The number of Sandwich Terns now is slowly increasing to about 85 with 5 newly arrived Common Tern. Passing through on migration were three Bar-Tailed Godwits (2 in breeding plumage) and 2 Wheatear up near the river mouth. It was nice to see plenty of Terns bringing in fish from the Bay. Fingers crossed for a successful breeding year. Other birds of note were two Ruff and two Stonechat.
A great walk which is gaining popularity and remember all Friends are welcome!
A fabulous start to the morning walk, so still that water perfectly mirrored the blue sky and birdsong rang out so clearly that a Mistle Thrush up at Coastguard Square could be heard right down by Nook Drain and the air over the saltmarsh was full of Skylarks. The calls of returning Avocets can be heard everywhere now everywhere now, while flocks of Dunlin and Ringed Plover are feeding hungrily before continuing their journey northwards. The closeness of the path to the edge of the Salt Pool gave us excellent views of these while three newly-arrived Little Ringed Plovers, scuttling along the edges to in flight allowed us to appreciate the features which distinguish them from Ringed Plovers. While watching these waders we noticed small insectivorous migrants searching the turf: White Wagtail with a pure, pale grey back, an apricot-fronted Wheatear and a dazzling Yellow Wagtail. Although some common birds were mysteriously missing, the variety is increasing, so that along this short route we found 56 species.
