I spent three hours birding around the circular trail at Rye Harbour Nature Reserve on Sunday. Designated a SSSI, SPA and SAC due to its nationally important habitats including saltmarsh, fresh pools, brackish lagoons, reedbeds and coastal shingle, it always attracts good numbers of birds. Just an hour from Tunbridge Wells, I try and visit Rye Harbour at least once a year whenever I am in the UK. The website has recently been updated.
Although overcast and cold there were lots of birds on the lagoons including c1000 Golden Plover, c700 Lapwing, c300 Wigeon, and dozens of Oystercatcher, Shoveler, Gadwall and Teal. Alongside the odd Redshank, Grey Plover, Ringed Plover and Dunlin I picked out two Snipe.
The shingle beach produced a Skylark and a dozen Turnstone.
Although nothing too special materialised, the huge flock of Golden Plovers wheeling over the main pool was a spectacle, probably flushed by a raptor which I did not manage to locate.
Total count: 40 species
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| Common Snipe Gallinago gallinago. Eilat, September 2015. Nope, not a photo from the UK but more enjoyable than distant birds on an overcast day. |
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