Only one trip in June but it was a very enjoyable trip. On June 11th we left early to get to Pett Level (TQ901145) for a reported Squacco Heron. I know I said I don't go twitching any more but we had a free day so thought we might as well try it. The birding in the Pett/Rye area is good anyway. The bird had been reported on June 10th and wasn't seen again! I wasn't surprised. Still, on the way we had a few Northern Gannets from Hastings esplanade. Pett itself was summery i.e. not a lot about with the wader pools being almost entirely devoid of birds.

It was a sunny day so we decided to go to Rye Harbour Nature Reserve (carpark at TQ942188 by the Martello Tower). It tunred out to be one of those really enjoyable days; no pressure to see anything in particular and lots of summer birds about. Rye is an area of pools and shingle – in the bright summer sun we saw lots of Northern Wheatears with their young, saw and heard singing Corn Buntings, Eurasian Reed-buntings and Sedge Warblers. Summer-plumaged Common Redshanks, with bright red legs, appeared and disappeared, presumably hunting for food for their chicks, Common and Sandwich Terns flew over the pools and called loudly from their nesting colonies, Common Cuckoos could be heard calling from the distance and Yellow Wagtails showed beautifully on wire fences next to fields of crops. As we walked around the reserve and past the rape fields we saw Stock Doves and a Eurasian Turtle-dove – my first for the year.

The month list totalled 61 species with most of the top ten of course coming from the Pett/Rye trip. The Peregrine was one of the breeding pair in Brighton.