May 2021 - Rye Harbour Nature Reserve Wildlife

Chris Bentley
, 01 June 2021
May 2021 - Rye Harbour Nature Reserve Wildlife
Swallowtail Butterfly. Image Barry Yates

Last August we found a Swallowtail butterfly at Watch Cottage and it laid eggs on Fennel in a garden next to the nature reserve. These were collected and reared through to pupation (see https://sussexwildlifetrust.org.uk/news/swallowtail-diary.) The exciting news this month is that the first of the nine emerged from its pupa on the 29th! The adults will be mated with other reared offspring of wild adults from last year and then released into the wild.

 Rxhobby

Hobby

Breeding waders included around 35-40 pairs of Avocet, around 25-30 pairs of Oystercatcher and Ringed Plover, five or six Lapwing and 10 pairs of Redshank, while two pairs of Little Ringed Plover were displaying on Harbour Farm.  Our breeding seabirds were in lower numbers than usual and included around 50 pairs of Black-headed Gull, which also produced their first chicks late in the month, perhaps ten pairs of Common Tern and small numbers of Little Tern. At Castle Water, Bittern was heard booming throughout the month, while a Great White Egret was seen here on the 23rd and 30th and a Spoonbill was on Harbour Farm on the 1st. In addition, the long-staying Black-necked Grebe was present at Castle Water throughout and was joined by two additional birds on the 31st and a White-fronted Goose was present on Harbour Farm on the 26th (apparently paired up with a Greylag!). Raptors included regular Marsh Harrier and Peregrine, Red Kite on 18th and up to 13 Hobby mid-month. Passerines included small numbers of Swift, Swallow, Sand Martin and House Martin early in the month, while there were occasional sightings of Yellow Wagtail and Bearded Tit at Castle Water. The highlight though was a Turtle Dove seen briefly at the western end of the Beach Reserve on the 5th, while a record of Garden Warbler on the 2nd was a less than annual occurrence here.

 Rxburnet companion

Burnet Companion

The prolonged miserable weather during May meant that catches in the moth trap were way below average for the time of year, with the best day only producing 13 moths of six species! The highlight was a single Saltmarsh Knothorn on the 27th, a less than annual visitor to the reserve!  Elsewhere, we had only the second ever record of Burnet Companion with one at Castle Water on the 12th, while around 30 caterpillars of the rare Horehound Plume Moth were found at Castle Water on the 27th. In addition, we also had the first records of Pale Grass Eggar for 2021, with two larvae on the 30th. Little in the way of butterflies, though there was an influx of Painted Lady and Red Admiral with a few Clouded Yellow early in the month and we had our first records of Brown Argus on the 30th. Notable bees this month included Vernal Colletes, Painted Nomad Bee and the first records of the year for Gold-fringed Mason Bee and Brown-banded Carder Bee. Plants in flower included Sea Kale, Sea Pea, Thrift, Salsify, Wild Strawberry, Sea Campion and on 31st the first of the Yellow-horned Poppy.

Rxthrift

Thrift

Leave a comment
Time Δ Debug Message - Perch Runway 3.2
1788084875.07160 [907] SELECT p.pagePath, pr.routePattern, pr.routeRegExp, p.pageTemplate, pr.routeOrder, s.settingValue AS siteOffline FROM swt_pages_staging p LEFT JOIN swt_page_routes pr ON p.pageID=pr.pageID LEFT JOIN swt_settings s ON s.settingID='siteOffline' UNION SELECT NULL AS pagePath, pr2.routePattern, pr2.routeRegExp, pr2.templatePath AS pageTemplate, pr2.routeOrder, NULL AS siteOffline FROM swt_page_routes pr2 WHERE templateID!=0 ORDER BY routeOrder ASC, pagePath ASC
1788084875.10390.0322Matched route: news/[slug:s]
1788084875.1040.0002Server address: 216.73.217.60
1788084875.10410Using master page: /templates/pages/blog/post.php
1788084875.10410Page arguments: 
Array
(
    [0] => /news/may-2021-rye-harbour-nature-reserve-wildlife
    [s] => may-2021-rye-harbour-nature-reserve-wildlife
    [1] => may-2021-rye-harbour-nature-reserve-wildlife
)
1788084875.10430.0002 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1788084875.10540.0011 [86] SELECT DISTINCT settingID, settingValue FROM swt_settings WHERE userID=0
1788084875.10760.0022 [1] SELECT locationID FROM swt_shop_tax_locations WHERE locationIsHome=1 LIMIT 1
1788084875.10830.0007INSERT INTO swt_shop_cart(memberID,locationID,currencyID,cartPricing,cartProperties) VALUES(NULL,'1',47,'standard','[]')
1788084875.11210.0038 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_cart WHERE cartID=24613582
1788084875.1130.0009 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_cart WHERE cartID=24613582
1788084875.11380.0008 [nil] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_sales WHERE saleFrom<='2026-08-30 10:14:00' AND saleTo>'2026-08-30 10:14:00' AND saleActive=1 AND saleDeleted IS NULL ORDER BY saleOrder ASC
1788084875.11530.0015 [1] SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS DISTINCT tbl.* FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, main.*, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_blog_index idx JOIN swt_blog_posts main ON idx.itemID=main.postID AND idx.itemKey='postID' JOIN swt_blog_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey='postID' AND idx2.indexKey='_id' WHERE 1=1 AND ((idx.indexKey='postSlug' AND idx.indexValue='may-2021-rye-harbour-nature-reserve-wildlife')) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey=idx2.itemKey GROUP BY idx.itemID, idx2.indexValue, postID ) as tbl WHERE (postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-08-30 10:14:00' ) GROUP BY itemID, sortval ORDER BY sortval ASC LIMIT 0, 10
1788084875.11910.0038 [1] SELECT FOUND_ROWS() AS `count`
1788084875.11970.0006 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_posts WHERE postID=2540 AND postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-08-30 10:14:00'
1788084875.12080.001 [13] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_sections ORDER BY sectionTitle ASC
1788084875.12160.0008 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blogs ORDER BY blogTitle ASC
1788084875.12230.0008 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=88 LIMIT 1
1788084875.1230.0007 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=70 LIMIT 1
1788084875.12360.0006 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=36 LIMIT 1
1788084875.12430.0006 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=66 LIMIT 1
1788084875.12510.0008Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1788084875.12530.0002 [162] SELECT catID, catPath FROM swt_categories
1788084875.12630.001 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_posts WHERE postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-08-30 10:14:00' AND postSlug='may-2021-rye-harbour-nature-reserve-wildlife'
1788084875.15530.029Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1788084875.15640.0011 [250] SELECT country, countryID FROM swt_shop_countries WHERE countryActive=1 ORDER BY country ASC
1788084875.15830.0019Using template: /templates/pages/attributes/seo.html
1788084875.15850.0003 [1] SELECT regionID, regionTemplate, regionPage, regionRev AS rev FROM swt_content_regions WHERE regionKey='Banner image' AND (regionPage='/news/post' OR regionPage='*')
1788084875.15950.001 [nil] SELECT * FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, c.regionID, idx.pageID, c.itemJSON, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_content_index idx JOIN swt_content_items c ON idx.itemID=c.itemID AND idx.itemRev=c.itemRev AND idx.regionID=c.regionID JOIN swt_content_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemRev=idx2.itemRev AND idx2.indexKey='_order' WHERE ((idx.regionID=104 AND idx.itemRev=0)) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemRev=idx2.itemRev ) as tbl GROUP BY itemID, pageID, itemJSON, sortval, regionID ORDER BY sortval ASC
1788084875.1610.0014 [82] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageDepth >=0 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1788084875.16530.0043 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1788084875.16610.0008 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1788084875.16910.003Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template.html
1788084875.16910 [6] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1788084875.170.0008 [4] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1788084875.17050.0006 [29] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1788084875.17260.002 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1788084875.17340.0009 [7] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1788084875.17410.0007 [9] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1788084875.1770.0028 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' OR pageSortPath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1788084875.17810.0012 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageHidden=0 AND pageNew=0 AND pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition
1788084875.18160.0035 [1] Using template: /templates/navigation/breadcrumbs.html
1788084875.18210.0005Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1788084875.18240.0003 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_authors WHERE authorID='9' LIMIT 1
1788084875.18340.001Using template: /templates/blog/author.html
1788084875.18370.0004 [1] SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS DISTINCT tbl.* FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, main.*, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_blog_index idx JOIN swt_blog_posts main ON idx.itemID=main.postID AND idx.itemKey='postID' JOIN swt_blog_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey='postID' AND idx2.indexKey='_id' WHERE 1=1 AND ((idx.indexKey='postSlug' AND idx.indexValue='may-2021-rye-harbour-nature-reserve-wildlife')) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey=idx2.itemKey GROUP BY idx.itemID, idx2.indexValue, postID ) as tbl WHERE (postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-08-30 10:14:00' ) GROUP BY itemID, sortval ORDER BY sortval ASC LIMIT 0, 1
1788084875.1870.0033 [1] SELECT FOUND_ROWS() AS `count`
1788084875.18760.0006 [1] Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1788084875.19060.003Using template: /templates/blog/comment_form.html
1788084875.19140.0008 [nil] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_comments WHERE 1=1 AND postID=2540 AND commentStatus='LIVE' ORDER BY FIELD(webmentionType, 'like', 'repost', 'comment', NULL) ASC, commentDateTime ASC
1788084875.27310.0817 [0] Using template: /templates/blog/comment.html
1788084875.27340.0002Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1788084875.27360.0002 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_authors WHERE authorID='9' LIMIT 1
1788084875.27460.001 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/what-we-do' OR pageSortPath='/what-we-do' LIMIT 1
1788084875.27540.0008 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-002' LIMIT 1
1788084875.27620.0008 [7] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-002%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1788084875.27960.0034 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1788084875.28030.0007 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1788084875.28320.0029 [6] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1788084875.28450.0013 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/make-a-difference' OR pageSortPath='/make-a-difference' LIMIT 1
1788084875.28550.001 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-005' LIMIT 1
1788084875.28620.0007 [38] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-005%' ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1788084875.29030.0041 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1788084875.29110.0008 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1788084875.29450.0034 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1788084875.29780.0033 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/visit' OR pageSortPath='/visit' LIMIT 1
1788084875.2990.0012 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-004' LIMIT 1
1788084875.29990.0009 [30] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-004%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1788084875.30350.0036 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1788084875.30430.0008 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1788084875.30730.003 [29] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1788084875.30990.0026 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/make-a-difference' OR pageSortPath='/make-a-difference' LIMIT 1
1788084875.3110.001 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-005' LIMIT 1
1788084875.31180.0008 [11] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-005%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1788084875.3150.0032 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1788084875.31550.0006 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1788084875.31820.0027 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1788084875.31960.0014Request time: 0.2491
1788084875.31960Process time: 0.249
1788084875.31960Memory: 1.654