Rye Harbour Nature Reserve Wildlife Sightings: December 2023
By Paul Tinsley-Marshall
Site Manager, Rye Harbour Nature Reserve
December was a relatively quiet month. Some good duck counts included Gadwall (196), Shoveler (369) and a record count of Pintail (82) on Flat Beach at the end of the month. A single Black-necked Grebe was on Castle Water throughout December, and numbers of Little Grebe (43) were good, though not exceptional. A single Red-brested Merganser was present on Flat Beach all month, and a single Spoonbill was also present throughout, mostly on Flat Beach, Saltmarsh and Salt Pool. A Peregrine Falcon was observed and photographed hunting and killing a Kingfisher over Salt Pool. The number of Great Black-backed Gull (420) was the highest count since 2016. A Tawny Owl heard at Castle Water was thought to be the first record since 2013, though this may be an under recorded species on the reserve. A Golden Pheasant provided some exotic interest on the 30th and was traced to a Rye Harbour resident.
An Oystercatcher that is at least five years old has now been seen at Rye Harbour twice since it was first ringed in the Netherlands in 2018. It was first seen here in March 2021, and again in November this year. Many breed in the Netherlands, and spend the winter with us, feeding on cockles and mussels on the intertidal shoreline. They are long-lived birds, typically surviving 12 years, but the oldest known individual was over 40! Do look out for colour-ringed birds at Rye, and report any you see via the British Trust for Ornithology: https://app.bto.org/euring/lang/pages/rings.jsp.
A queen bumble bee was seen on the wing on two occasions between Christmas and New Year, and Common Daisy observed in flower at Watch Cottage.
Thanks go to all the observers who contribute to the monthly sighting reports. If you have spotted something interesting on the reserve, please do make a record via iRecord and if you think it is particularly significant please let us know at [email protected].