Rye Meads Sightings Blog - October

Firstly, please allow us to apologise for the delay in getting this blog post done and out to you. To make up for it we will be doing October and November within a couple of days of each other to give you plenty to read about what species have been dropping in to Rye Meads.

This month we have seen a lot of Redwings around the reserve, mostly flying over but also having a dig around in the car park mostly. The numbers of Lapwing are also staying quite high and with the water levels at the Draper hide still high, they are often seen in varying numbers from the Gadwall hide.

Earlier in the month we were briefly visited by a Common Sandpiper, however it only appeared to stay for a day at the Draper hide. They are by no means a stranger to Rye Meads but it’s not what we would call a ‘regular’, making it all that more exciting. We also had a single report of the Grass Snakes being seen in their regular spot at the log just before the seasonal trail which was in the first week of October too. In the second half of the month we started having sightings of Stonechat out on the meadow from the Lapwing hide. It has been difficult to spot them but luckily they do like to sit on top of reeds for a while so you can often get a good view of them. We’ve also seen a welcome visitor return this month, the Marsh Harrier, which was spotted a couple of times at the Draper hide. Speaking of welcome returns, we’ve had a continuation of Kingfisher sightings. They are often seen in varying places around the reserve ranging from the first bridge to the Draper to the Kingfisher hub so it’s difficult to know where they will show up next.

A welcome sight to see at the Draper hide is the Snipe, and this month they really decided to make it their home. They were seen and reported almost every day for the first 3 weeks of October, there were just a couple of days where we didn’t have any reports of them being seen. It is very possible that they were there during the last week as well, but they are very tricky to see and don’t make it easy to spot them. Possibly just as difficult to spot (although less due to camouflage) was the Common Gull that spent a few days with us at the Gadwall hide in the first couple of weeks of October, it does appear to still be around but we’re jumping ahead of ourselves as this is October not Decembers list.

The Peregrine Falcon has also been a regular visitor, often spending it’s time on the pylon in the meadow at the front of the Lapwing hide. There were a couple of Ravens that decided to spoil the Peregrines party though. If you follow us on Facebook and X (Twitter) you will have seen the video of the Ravens on the same pylon with an expert commentary from our Site Manager explaining what had happened between them before the camera was recording. It really was fun to watch as they took it in turns to dive bomb each other!

October also brought in a couple of real rarities to the reserve. Our volunteer Mel saw 3 Bearded Tits from the Warbler hide and a Bullfinch that was heard, however, we haven’t been able to verify it. The Head Ringer of the Rye Meads Ringing Group also reported seeing an immature, 2^nd year Caspian Gull at the Gadwall hide. Slightly less of a rarity, but still a joy to see was a Fox that was seen on 13^th October from the Lapwing hide. In the second half of the month, as we got closer to winter, we saw an increase in tit flocks which meant there was an increase in Goldcrest’s being seen around the reserve as well with the willow tunnel just after the Draper hide being a particularly popular spot for them. Cetti’s, Chiffchaff and Blackcap were also still being heard around the reserve as well as a few butterflies. We had reports of Red Admiral, Small White and Speckled Wood butterfly’s all being seen around the reserve, mainly near the Visitor Centre but also at the turnstile, possibly owing to the relatively mild October we had.

Of course these are all just a quick snapshot of what was seen around the reserve, but we really depend on you, the visitors, to tell us what you see when you’re on the reserve. The more reports we get the more detailed we can be, so please make sure you write down everything you see when you come back through the Visitor Centre. There is a book just under the map of the reserve that you can add everything you see (if you could add as much information as you can it also really helps when we tell other people what’s out there).

We thought we’d try something a little different this time as well and try and give a bit of an idea as to what you may see when you’re here so we thought we’d do a bit of a leaderboard. This is by no means a scientific representation, but does give a good idea of how the amount of each species changes month by month (and it’s quite fun).

To get the top 5 we took all the sightings of each species, added the amount seen together and divided this by the number of sightings, which gives the average of each sighting. For example, if 22 Robins were recorded over 11 different days it would give an average of 2 sightings per visit. Where the number is not a round number we have rounded up.

So there you go, the top this month is the Gadwall. Remember to add what you see to our sightings book and you never know what might be at the top for November.

The Rye Meads team.