Rye Harbour

Saturday 5th March

Earlier in the week, David Campbell had the good fortune to find a drake Green-winged Teal on Flat Beach at Rye Harbour. Not the most mouth watering of rarities perhaps but a good bird for Sussex nevertheless with only seven records this century and none since 2011. With no twitchable Green-winged Teal in Sussex since 2005, this was a bird Gareth especially was keen to see and I was happy to go along for the ride though I hadn't counted on being there at 06:15 before the car park was open! By 06:30 we had our scopes set up overlooking Flat Beach and, despite the sun having not yet risen, I soon found the bird some distance away with a small group of Eurasian Teal. We watched it for about 20 minutes and were able to point it out to three other arriving birders including Tom Sadler before it flew north with two Teal and was lost from view. 

Having seen the Green-winged Teal, we then walked out to the mouth of the Rother where we soon found the Iceland Gull that had been around for a few days and had good views of it resting on the sand west of the harbour entrance. The consensus is that it is a 2nd winter (3cy) bird but I was a little surprised that the eye appeared dark and that the bill did not have more of a pale tip to it. Back at Flat Beach, the Green-winged Teal had not returned so we opted for a circuit of the Beach Reserve on the assumption that it might have moved to the Salt Pool. It hadn't, despite there being plenty of Eurasian Teal and a pair of Pintail there. Back at the Rother mouth, the Iceland Gull had moved into the harbour entrance where it showed even better than before but in Gooders hide Ian Barnard & Matt Eade confirmed that the Teal had still not been relocated. At least 400 Golden Plover, 20 Avocets, 2 adult Mediterranean Gulls and my first Sandwich Tern of 2022 were on Flat Beach. We left the others to it as Gareth had to be back by lunchtime and, as we were driving home, news came through of a Green-winged Teal at Oare Marshes. Surely it could not have already relocated to north Kent but as it happens we heard later that the Rye bird had been re-found on the salt marsh out from the new Discovery Centre.



It had been 5 years since my last Green-winged Teal in the UK (Cornwall, January 2017) which coincidently was sharing the Hayle Estuary with an Iceland Gull - one of those strange coincidences that pop up in birding from time to time.

In the afternoon Bridget and I checked out Southwick Canal where the Long-tailed Duck was still present but distant by the Local Fuels depot. Very quiet otherwise bar a 2cy Shag on the seaward of the east arm of Shoreham Harbour.


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