Rye Harbour and Castle Water

Having had a planned walk around Old Lodge on Ashdown Forest cancelled due to possible bad weather, this afternoon I took myself off with Frank, parked at Dogs Hill and headed off along the Sea path with the tide coming in a small strip of sand left held several Oystercatchers, a possible ringed plover and 2 Knot, we headed inland towards Castle Water. At the start of Long Pit there were many Pochard and a couple of Scaup, the path round to CastleWater was really muddy and we won't be doing this again this winter. In the gloom there were many little brown things flitting around the bushes, A flock of Long Tailed Tits were noted as were several Chaffinches. On arrival at the hide not a great deal to report, Mute Swans, Canada Geese, Cootes, Moorhen, Little Grebe, Shoveler, Tufted, Mallard, Wigeon, Cormorants, Grey Heron but no Little Egret. The water level had certainly risen since last time I was here on the 4th .With time getting on we set off for the View Point and what a dissappointment absolutely nothing.
We fast tracked up the road to Rye Harbour turned down by the Nook Fishery and disturbed a Sparrow Hawk, on harbour farm pools there were a couple of Redshank and at the new hide there was another on the Quarry, in the distance a colony of gulls could be seen along with a few unrecognisable birds due to the bad light. With darkness creeping in we hot footed back along the sea road seeing several flocks of Lapwing heading on to the reserve to roost.