Each month Rye News reports on the amazing wildlife right on our doorstep at Rye Harbour Nature Reserve. Sussex Wildlife Trust volunteer David Bentley has been capturing the comings and goings on the reserve during June.
Changeable and sometimes wet weather at the start of the month settled down to leave a largely very warm, dry June with another record-breaking heatwave from Midsummer’s Day onwards.
Our masses of breeding terns sometimes attract a rarer cousin and so it was that a single Roseate Tern was seen on 1 June and two more were watched from Parkes Hide on 29 June. Breeding Sandwich and Common Tern both had young from 5 June and by the end of the month it was established that we had 10 adult Little Tern with four or five chicks at Flat Beach.
Spring wader passage, with birds racing through to take advantage of the short far-north summer, is barely over before the more leisurely ‘autumn’ return begins. Those birds that failed to breed are likely the first to be spotted. June was a good month for waders beginning with 12 Bar-tailed Godwit at Salt Pool on 11 June, followed by two Sanderling at Ternery Pool from 15 to 17 June and a Little Stint at the same place also on 17 June.
After their usual, brief, early-summer absence, Curlew were back in force on 25 June with 42 counted opposite the Discovery Centre. Singles of Curlew Sandpiper and Greenshank were seen from Crittall Hide on 26 June while Spoonbill, Greenshank and over 20 Avocet were recorded at Castle Water on the same day. The first three returning Green Sandpiper flicked and bobbed their way around muddy margins at Castle Water on 28 June. A single Whimbrel at Castle Water on 29 June rounded off the month.
A congregation of over 400 Mediterranean Gulls on Flat Beach on 25 June was notable and curious.
There were two Little Gull at Salt Pool between 13 and 20 June, with possibly one of those birds at Castle Water on 19 June. These are the world’s smallest gull species and are generally easy to spot, with their light, tern-like flight, often picking insects from the air or the surface of the water.
A ‘reeling’ Grasshopper Warbler was heard and occasionally seen in scrub near Corner Pool between 11 and 14 June. The thick, low scrub adjacent to Narrow Pit and around Harbour Farm occasionally attracts a spring bird or two, but they very rarely linger or breed.
Bird of the month goes to a singing Serin by Watch Cottage on 23 June. The song of this small, yellowish finch is a super-fast ‘crushing glass’ jingle. This is an excellent sighting as it’s a rare bird on the reserve with only a handful of records, despite being relatively common in northern France.
Painted Lady butterflies have been present in small numbers all summer, but ranks swelled towards the end of the month, along with a few Hummingbird Hawk-moths, coinciding with the hot weather.
Long-horned Bees were feeding on Meadow Vetchling at Nook Drain from at least 10 June. Good numbers of Brown-banded Carder Bees and single Southern Cuckoo Bee and Ruderal Bee were found on 14 June, also at Nook Drain.
A Norfolk Hawker was recorded at Barn Field on 23 June and a Four-banded Longhorn Beetle was at Castle Water on 25 June.
The nationally critically endangered Red Hemp-nettle was in flower just behind the beach from 25 June at least and should be visible throughout July. Viper’s-bugloss seems particularly abundant this year and other plants in flower in June included Sea Pea, Yellow Horned-poppy and Red Valerian.
Rye Harbour Nature Reserve is managed by Sussex Wildlife Trust and supported by the Friends of Rye Harbour Nature Reserve
Image Credits: Bob Eade , Adam Jones , James Tomlinson , Peter Brooks , Polly Mair .