Rye Harbour

July tends to be quite quiet bird wise - the breeding season for many species is over and the flood of migrants travelling south has not yet materialised. There does seem to a bit of an increase in migration though, especially waders, with good numbers of dunlin, quite a few common sandpiper and the odd snipe, ruff, greenshank, black-tailed godwit and golden plover, while roosts of curlew and whimbrel have peaked at 180 and 40 respectively. Dave King turned up good numbers of migrating warblers in the shingly field by the caravan park recently, including lesser whitethroat, garden warbler, willow warbler and blackcap. Other interesting birds recently have included up to four great white egret, spoonbill, marsh harrier, buzzard and treecreeper at Castle Water, red-breasted merganser, raven and yellow wagtail on Harbour Farm and avocet and peregrine on the Beach Reserve.