Update from Rye Harbour Nature Reserve Heritage Trainee, Shannon

It’s now over a month since I started my trainee position here at Rye Harbour Nature Reserve and I have been keeping very busy.

We have an ongoing series of ‘Wild Beach’ sessions with two local schools. Luckily for all of us, the sun had decided to come out and we could have fun, educational coastal activities, including rock pooling and beach art. It’s great to see all the young minds so eager and enthusiastic to learn about wildlife in practise. Litter picking is incorporated into all sessions and some of the children were very keen to do a little beach clean and chose this activity over playing in the sand. 

It gives me such hope for the future to see younger generations educated, aware and proactive in the fight against pollution and climate change. Getting kids outside and face to face with nature is an excellent way to encourage further consideration of the environment.

I have also been working with Reserve Officer Chris Bentley, assisting in the end of year butterfly and dragonfly survey as well as looking into the moth trap, and wandering around to see what insects were about. We were lucky enough to view Sea Aster bees buzzing around the edge of the saltmarsh. Can you guess what saltmarsh plant they have a preference for? Congratulations if you guessed Sea Aster! Because this is a rare plant only found on saltmarsh, the Sea Aster bee is subsequently a rare species in the UK. While observing the bees we noticed a species of parasitic bee, known as the Black-thighed Epeolus (see picture below of a female).

I have other projects coming up, including snail and plankton surveying! Keep up to date with the blog to hear how these projects are coming along.

Supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund