Rye Harbour. Bumblebee Surveying and Bird Watching. 18.08.21

I went to Rye Harbour Nature Reserve to take part in the fortnightly bumblebee surveying that I undertake with the Bumblebee Conservation Trust's Short-haired Bumblebee Reintroduction Project. In the morning I surveyed (with another volunteer) Rye Allotments and the seawall at Pett Level. We saw some of the usual suspects: Buff Tailed Bumblebees, Red Tailed Bumblebees, Common Carder Bumblebees and Brown Banded Carder Bumblebees (rare in the UK but relatively abundant in the Rye Harbour/Dungeness area). I haven't included any photographs of these as there are many photos of these bees in other posts; the photos in this post are of solitary bees and wasps that I saw, the seal pups in Rye Harbour and the birds I saw when birdwatching, after I had finished bumblebee surveying, in the Rye Harbour Nature Reserve (Sussex Wildlife Trust)

A Mint Moth, Pyrausta aurata, on mint, in Rye Allotments

A solitary bee (on Yellow Ragwort), seawall, Pett Level, a Colletes genus bee, probably Davies' Colletes (Colletes daviesanus)

A Common Carder Bumblebee descending to Lavender in a garden in Rye Harbour

A Beewolf solitary wasp, Philanthus triangulum, on Sea Holly, a garden in Rye Harbour

On the banks of the River Rother at Rye Harbour there was a group of seal pups

Some House Sparrows

Common Terns in flight

Juvenile and adult Common Terns

Common Sandpipers

Dunlin

Pies Wagtail

Pied Wagtail and Dunlin

A Redshank

Ringed Plovers

Dunlin

Little Egrets and a Redshank

A Curlew

A Grey Heron