Trip reports

Coach Trip to Rye Harbour

Sunday, 19 April 2009

An almost full coach (52 birdwatchers) took a mixture of members from the RSPB Stevenage and Hitchin and Letchworth Local Groups to the south coast, for a walk round the Rye Harbour nature reserve. With migrants from Africa streaming into the country it was no surprise that we saw a good selection of very noisy summer visitors, as well as extremely noisy colonies of sandwich terns, mediterranean gulls (easily the biggest colony in the UK) and, dwarfing all these, a massive group of black-headed gulls! Whimbrel was the star wader of the day and, away from the birds, marsh frogs (also very noisy!), common lizard, common seal and a newly-emerged hairy dragonfly were highlights. A biting cold morning wind made way for pleasant afternoon sunshine, to complete an enjoyable day. The full bird list (94 species) can be accessed from the RSPB Local Group page of the web site www.roystonwildlife.com.