Rye Harbour Nature Reserve Wildlife Sightings: July 2024

By David Bentley

Volunteer and member of the Friends of Rye Harbour Nature Reserve

July started cool and damp, but increasingly warm and drier days resulted in broadly average weather conditions for the month as a whole.

A stunning but elusive male Red-backed Shrike was found in scrub at the Winchelsea Beach end of the reserve on the 8^th. It stayed until at least the 13^th, but was never easy to see. Six Green Sandpiper near this spot on the 9^th indicated that 'autumn' wader migration was well under way. As water levels continued to fall at Castle Water, more islands emerged and up to five Common and five Green Sandpiper were seen there in July. Two Little Ringed Plover were also at Castle Water on the 8th.

As summer progresses, the breeding tern colonies can attract an occasional Roseate Tern and so it was this July, when single birds were seen at Flat Beach on the 9^th, 13^th, 18^th and 20^th. 

Spoonbill are now recorded in most months at Rye Harbour, although there was just one record this July, a single bird over Nook Meadows on the 10^th. A Barn Owl was seen hunting at the same place two days later. The first juvenile Yellow-legged Gull of the year was seen on the 14^th near the Mary Stanford Lifeboat House.

Passage wader numbers continued to rise as the month progressed. There was a Curlew Sandpiper from Gooders Hide on the 23^rd and two more on the 30^th. A tiny Little Stint was seen at the same place on the 28^th and 30^th. There were small numbers of Greenshank, including three on Ternery Pool on the last day of the month. Castle Water, and nearby grassland, hosted nine Whimbrel and 11 Curlew on the 24^th, with two Black-tailed Godwit and a single Ruff on the 30^th.

A rare White-rumped Sandpiper spent a couple of hours on Flat Beach on the 28^th. The bird was seen roosting and then feeding, before flying off into the distance. If accepted, this will be one of less than twenty ever sightings of the species in Sussex.

The first returning Wheatear appeared toward the end of the month with singles on the 21^st and 31^st at Flat Beach and two at Camber Castle on the 31^st. Sadly, there is no evidence of breeding of this lovely bird on the nature reserve this year. Good numbers of lemon-yellow Willow Warbler appeared on and after the 28^th, especially in scrub around Castle Water. A count of 36 Little Tern, including this years fledged birds, towards the end of the month, was emblematic of a decent breeding season for all three species of tern.

After what seemed like a poor start to the year for most invertebrates things improved in July. The rare Brown-banded Carder Bee was recorded on Nook Drain, with 61 workers, one male and five queens, suggesting at least one nest and probably more in this area of the reserve, which is excellent news for one of the UK's rarest bees. Other July invertebrate records included the very rare Ruderal Bumblebee, Hairy-legged 'Pantaloon' Mining Bee, Silvery Leafcutter Bee, Hairy-saddled Colletes and Green-eyed Flower Bee.

Some shingle flowers, including Sea Pea, were still going strong. The impressive stands of Marsh Mallow were in full flower at the north end of Castle Water from the middle of the month. A patch of Goat's Rue was in flower early in the month, near the Harbour Farm barns. A Broad-leaved Helleborine was found not far from the reedbed viewpoint, the first record for this species at Rye Harbour Nature Reserve.

Thanks go to all those whose observations contribute to the monthly sighting reports. If you have spotted something interesting on the reserve, please do make a record with iRecord here and if you think it's particularly significant, please let us know at [email protected].