We had a good day on Saturday doing minibeasting, pond dipping, birdwatching and generally surveying all the wildlife that lives at Rye Meads. A big thank you to all those that participated as we got some really good results and managed to ID a fair few. In the absence of experts in the field of some of the invertebrates there are many we couldn't identify down to species level, but we gave it a good go and 110 is a fairly respectable total!
If you wanted to take a look, here are the results:
Birds
Mammals
Invertebrates
Reptiles/ Amphibians
Fish
Mallard
Gadwall
Tufted duck
Pochard
Shelduck
Little Grebe
Moorhen
Coot
Mute swan
Canada goose
Grey heron
Little egret
Cormorant
Black headed gull
Lesser black-backed gull
Herring gull
Common tern
Lapwing
Little ringed plover
Redshank
Kingfisher
Blue tit
Great Tit
Long tailed tit
Robin
Blackbird
Goldfinch
Dunnock
Wren
Pied wagtail
Sedge warbler
Reed warbler
Cetti's Warbler
Blackcap
Common whitethroat
Chiffchaff
Willow warbler
Reed bunting
Swallow
Swift
Starling
Pheasant
Cuckoo
Stock Dove
Collared dove
Wood pigeon
Feral pigeon
Magpie
Crow
Jackdaw
Kestrel
Buzzard
Hobby
Bank vole
Water vole
Brown rat
Rabbit
Muntjac
Konik (pony)
Common blue damselfly
Blue tailed damselfly
Large red damselfly
Azure damselfly
Banded demoiselle
Broad bodied chaser
Hairy dragonfly
Large white butterfly
Small white butterfly
Brimstone butterfly
Peacock butterfly
White ermine moth
Buff ermine moth
Green carpet moth
Poplar hawkmoth
Burnett moth
White-tailed bumblebee
Orange-tailed bumblebee
Common red soldier beetle
Thick legged flower beetle
Devil’s coach horse
Earthworm
Garden snail
Greater water boatman (Backswimmer)
Lesser water boatman
Common pond skater
Daphnia (water flea)
Common fish leech
Leopard slug
(The following not to species level)
Mayfly
Hoverfly
Lacewing
Crab spider
Black ant
Red ant
Earwig
Woodlouse
Millipede
Centipede
Flatworm
Water mite
Whirligig beetle
Water louse
Freshwater shrimp
Pond snail
Ramshorn snail
Common Newt (A)
Stickleback
Carp
Pike
And here are a few highlights of the day:
Thick legged flower beetle (Odemera nobilis)
Photo by Darren Bast
Poplar Hawkmoth (Laothoe populi)
Photo by Vicky Buckel
Bank vole (Myodes glareolus)
Photo by Helen Jones