On 16th October at 3.24pm I got a phone call from Mike "there's a phalarope on the pool near Gasson's Ruin".
So I headed off to find and photograph a lovely first winter Red-necked Phalarope - a tiny seabird that's rare in Sussex, on it's way from Scandinavia to the Persian Gulf (?), stopping off to refuel on tiny shrimps and flies.
It turned out that a very observant Theresa had found this tiny wading bird - about the size of a Robin - when it was far off on the pool - thank-you for letting us know.
Those first photos were taken in dull conditions, so when, a few days later, I was passing and the sun was out I took another opportunity of sitting at the edge of the pool. At one point when the bird was very close, it called and stretched its wings.
This brought back distant memories of the summer of 1983 when I lived on a small island in Shetland to study Red-necked Phalaropes for the RSPB. That was a summer of many special wildlife memories... but since then I have seen a very few of all three phalarope species at Rye Harbour - Grey and Wilson's being the others.
The bird stayed faithful to the two small pools near our footpath marker #5 and it was last seen on the 30th and in its two weeks with us had been enjoyed by many visiting birders. These two pools are the only natural water bodies in the whole reserve and were formed a couple of hundred years ago by storms creating new fingers of shingle that eventually surrounded a wet hollow. In the photo below the ruin is bottom right and the two pools top left.
Here are a couple of films of the Red-necked Phalarope
This post is also available on Sussex Wildlife Trust website
