On Thursday 30 July, I joined a Sussex Wildlife Trust walk for National Marine Week at Rye Harbour Nature Reserve. The sun welcomed familiar and new faces to gather at the Discovery Centre. Our two helpful guides, Archie and James Duncan, shared an introduction to the theme of the walk – Incredible Journeys. From there, we set off on a loop around the reserve.
Starting our walk was the calling Whimbrel, with a discussion of similarities and differences between Whimbrel and Curlew. The Curlew has a more curved beak than the Whimbrel, but not necessarily any shorter. The Whimbrel also has a distinctive “7 note call”. If you are close enough to tell, they also have different head markings to each other, however this can be hard to spot. The Whimbrel is famous for migrating thousands of kilometres each year, with a stopover in England giving us the chance to glimpse them.
Continuing our walk we got a view of a Curlew in the Salt Marsh, making it difficult to identify, but confirming our knowledge about distinguishing between Whimbrel and Curlew.
We visited two hides on our walk, with good views of Ringed Plover, a Ringed Plover chick, two fledgeling Little Terns, and a great sight of a Cormorant attempting to swallow an eel, which was wanting to escape! On top of all of these delights, the whole group got some wonderful views from the hide of Common Terns feeding their small fluff-ball chicks.
Walking back along the seafront the wind picked up, as we spotted a Grey Seal swimming up the Rother. We then learned that a Grey Seal’s Latin name is Halichoerus grypus, which translates to “Hook-nosed Sea Pig”!
We also learned that some types of fish protect themselves by oozing out fish mucus. Archie described that when hagfish get stressed, they release mucus, to deter a predator from getting mucus stuck in their gills. If you want to look up online what happened when hagfish were being transported and ended up in a car crash, it is quite a sight.
We all completed the route back to the Discovery Centre. Many thanks to James and Archie!
Image Credits: Xavier Marrs .