Rye Harbour Nature Reserve Sightings June

Bobbie Lane
, 10 July 2026
Rye Harbour Nature Reserve Sightings June
Curlew Sandpiper © Bob Eade

David Bentley - Sussex Wildlife Trust volunteer


Changeable and sometimes wet weather at the start of the month settled down to leave a largely very warm, dry June with another record-breaking heatwave from Midsummer's Day onwards.

Roseate Tern © Adam Jones
Roseate Tern © Adam Jones

Our masses of breeding terns sometimes attract a rarer cousin and so it was that a single Roseate Tern was seen on 1st and two more were watched from Parkes Hide on 29th. Breeding Sandwich and Common Tern both had young from 5th and by the end of the month it was established that we had ten adult Little Tern with four or five chicks at Flat Beach.

Spring wader passage, with birds racing through to take advantage of the short far-north summer, is barely over before the more leisurely 'autumn' return begins. Those birds that failed to breed are likely the first to be spotted. June was a good month for waders beginning with 12 Bar-tailed Godwit at Salt Pool on 11th, followed by two Sanderling at Ternery Pool from 15th to 17th and a Little Stint at the same place also on 17th.

After their usual, brief, early-summer absence, Curlew were back in force on 25th with 42 counted opposite the Discovery Centre. Singles of Curlew Sandpiper and Greenshank were seen from Crittall Hide on 26th, while Spoonbill, Greenshank and over 20 Avocet were recorded at Castle Water on the same day. The first three returning Green Sandpiper flicked and bobbed their way around muddy margins at Castle Water on 28th. A single Whimbrel at Castle Water on 29th rounded off the month.

A congregation of over 400 Mediterranean Gulls on Flat Beach on 25th was notable and curious.

Little Gull © James Tomlinson
Little Gull © James Tomlinson

There were two Little Gull at Salt Pool between 13th and 20th, with possibly one of those birds at Castle Water on 19th. These are the world's smallest gull species and are generally easy to spot, with their light, tern-like flight, often picking insects from the air or the surface of the water.

A 'reeling' Grasshopper Warbler was heard and occasionally seen in scrub near Corner Pool between 11th and 14th. The thick, low scrub adjacent to Narrow Pit and around Harbour Farm occasionally attracts a spring bird or two, but they very rarely linger or breed.

Serin © Peter Brooks
Serin © Peter Brooks

Bird of the month goes to a singing Serin by Watch Cottage on 23rd. The song of this small, yellowish finch is a super-fast 'crushing glass' jingle. This is an excellent sighting as it's a rare bird on the reserve with only a handful of records, despite being relatively common in northern France.

Painted Lady butterflies have been present in small numbers all summer, but ranks swelled towards the end of the month, along with a few Hummingbird Hawk-moths, coinciding with the hot weather.

Long-horned Bees were feeding on Meadow Vetchling at Nook Drain from at least 10th. Good numbers of Brown-banded Carder Bees and single Southern Cuckoo Bee and Ruderal Bee were found on 14th, also at Nook Drain.

Norfolk Hawker © Polly Mair
Norfolk Hawker © Polly Mair

A Norfolk Hawker was recorded at Barn Field on 23rd and a Four-banded Longhorn Beetle was at Castle Water on 25th.

Red Hemp-nettle © Neil Fletcher
Red Hemp-nettle © Neil Fletcher

The nationally critically endangered Red Hemp-nettle was in flower just behind the beach from 25th at least and should be visible throughout July. Viper's-bugloss seems particularly abundant this year and other plants in flower in June included Sea Pea, Yellow Horned-poppy and Red Valerian.

Leave a comment
Time Δ Debug Message - Perch Runway 3.2
1787380127.28480 [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
1787380127.34680.062Matched route: news/[slug:s]
1787380127.34690.0001Server address: 216.73.216.140
1787380127.34690Using master page: /templates/pages/blog/post.php
1787380127.34690Page arguments: 
Array
(
    [0] => /news/rye-harbour-nature-reserve-sightings-june
    [s] => rye-harbour-nature-reserve-sightings-june
    [1] => rye-harbour-nature-reserve-sightings-june
)
1787380127.34710.0002 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1787380127.34810.001 [86] SELECT DISTINCT settingID, settingValue FROM swt_settings WHERE userID=0
1787380127.35010.002 [1] SELECT locationID FROM swt_shop_tax_locations WHERE locationIsHome=1 LIMIT 1
1787380127.35580.0056INSERT INTO swt_shop_cart(memberID,locationID,currencyID,cartPricing,cartProperties) VALUES(NULL,'1',47,'standard','[]')
1787380127.37630.0205 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_cart WHERE cartID=24371331
1787380127.37730.001 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_cart WHERE cartID=24371331
1787380127.37820.0009 [nil] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_sales WHERE saleFrom<='2026-08-22 06:28:00' AND saleTo>'2026-08-22 06:28:00' AND saleActive=1 AND saleDeleted IS NULL ORDER BY saleOrder ASC
1787380127.37970.0015 [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='rye-harbour-nature-reserve-sightings-june')) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey=idx2.itemKey GROUP BY idx.itemID, idx2.indexValue, postID ) as tbl WHERE (postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-08-22 06:28:00' ) GROUP BY itemID, sortval ORDER BY sortval ASC LIMIT 0, 10
1787380127.40240.0227 [1] SELECT FOUND_ROWS() AS `count`
1787380127.40310.0007 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_posts WHERE postID=3967 AND postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-08-22 06:28:00'
1787380127.40420.0011 [13] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_sections ORDER BY sectionTitle ASC
1787380127.4050.0008 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blogs ORDER BY blogTitle ASC
1787380127.40590.0009 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=279 LIMIT 1
1787380127.40650.0006 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=70 LIMIT 1
1787380127.40710.0006 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=36 LIMIT 1
1787380127.40770.0006Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1787380127.40790.0002 [162] SELECT catID, catPath FROM swt_categories
1787380127.40910.0011 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_posts WHERE postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-08-22 06:28:00' AND postSlug='rye-harbour-nature-reserve-sightings-june'
1787380127.44230.0333Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1787380127.44290.0005 [250] SELECT country, countryID FROM swt_shop_countries WHERE countryActive=1 ORDER BY country ASC
1787380127.44550.0026Using template: /templates/pages/attributes/seo.html
1787380127.44580.0003 [1] SELECT regionID, regionTemplate, regionPage, regionRev AS rev FROM swt_content_regions WHERE regionKey='Banner image' AND (regionPage='/news/post' OR regionPage='*')
1787380127.44710.0012 [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
1787380127.44860.0015 [82] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageDepth >=0 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1787380127.4530.0044 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1787380127.45390.0009 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1787380127.45740.0035Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template.html
1787380127.45750.0001 [6] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1787380127.45850.001 [4] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1787380127.4590.0005 [29] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1787380127.4620.0031 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1787380127.46320.0011 [7] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1787380127.46390.0007 [9] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1787380127.46640.0025 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' OR pageSortPath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1787380127.46750.0011 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageHidden=0 AND pageNew=0 AND pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition
1787380127.47180.0043 [1] Using template: /templates/navigation/breadcrumbs.html
1787380127.47220.0004Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1787380127.47240.0002 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_authors WHERE authorID='35' LIMIT 1
1787380127.47320.0008Using template: /templates/blog/author.html
1787380127.47360.0004 [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='rye-harbour-nature-reserve-sightings-june')) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey=idx2.itemKey GROUP BY idx.itemID, idx2.indexValue, postID ) as tbl WHERE (postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-08-22 06:28:00' ) GROUP BY itemID, sortval ORDER BY sortval ASC LIMIT 0, 1
1787380127.47740.0038 [1] SELECT FOUND_ROWS() AS `count`
1787380127.47870.0013 [1] Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1787380127.48070.002Using template: /templates/blog/comment_form.html
1787380127.48150.0008 [nil] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_comments WHERE 1=1 AND postID=3967 AND commentStatus='LIVE' ORDER BY FIELD(webmentionType, 'like', 'repost', 'comment', NULL) ASC, commentDateTime ASC
1787380127.56180.0803 [0] Using template: /templates/blog/comment.html
1787380127.5620.0002Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1787380127.56240.0004 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_authors WHERE authorID='35' LIMIT 1
1787380127.56340.001 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/what-we-do' OR pageSortPath='/what-we-do' LIMIT 1
1787380127.56430.0009 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-002' LIMIT 1
1787380127.56510.0007 [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
1787380127.56810.003 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1787380127.56870.0006 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1787380127.57150.0028 [6] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1787380127.57230.0007 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/make-a-difference' OR pageSortPath='/make-a-difference' LIMIT 1
1787380127.5730.0008 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-005' LIMIT 1
1787380127.57360.0005 [38] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-005%' ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1787380127.57690.0033 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1787380127.57760.0007 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1787380127.58040.0029 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1787380127.58320.0028 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/visit' OR pageSortPath='/visit' LIMIT 1
1787380127.58430.0011 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-004' LIMIT 1
1787380127.58520.0009 [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
1787380127.58870.0035 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1787380127.58940.0007 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1787380127.59210.0028 [29] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1787380127.59470.0025 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/make-a-difference' OR pageSortPath='/make-a-difference' LIMIT 1
1787380127.59560.001 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-005' LIMIT 1
1787380127.59630.0007 [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
1787380127.59910.0028 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1787380127.59980.0007 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1787380127.60270.0029 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1787380127.60380.0011Request time: 0.3205
1787380127.60380Process time: 0.3203
1787380127.60380Memory: 1.652