Waitrose staff worked hard clearing willow from the reedbeds at a recent corporate volunteer day at Rye Harbour

Babington’s Orache is a low growing plant that has a precarious lifestyle, growing in the mobile shingle below the line of the winter storms

One of the characteristic invertebrates of Rye Harbour at this time of the year is the sea-aster bee.

This was one of the events to raise awareness and funds for the Rye Harbour Discovery Centre Appeal - it raised just over £2,000.

Over the last five years we have been managing some of our grassland for bumblebees, and every year between May and August we have also been counting the bees to monitor the effects.

At Rye Harbour, there are two quite similar species of ‘autumn colletes’ active at the moment, ivy bee (Colletes hederae) and sea-aster bee (Colletes halophilus), also known as saltmarsh bee

One bird which is typical of autumn passage at Rye Harbour is the whinchat.

Old photographs of the Sussex countryside can sometimes tell a good story. This one from 1947…

Lesser Burdock is a tall plant of the daisy family that has flowers with hooks or burrs.

Perhaps the most exciting wildlife find this month was a southern migrant hawker found on Harbour Farm on the 25th, the first reserve record for this rare migrant dragonfly.