David

Another flower I’d never heard of before. This hardy kiwifruit’s branches were coming over a high garden fence.

A scarlet tiger moth resting on a brick wall. This brightly coloured, day-flying moth seems to be getting more common. Perhaps its range is extending towards the north.

More wild flowers from the Rye Harbour Nature Reserve. Viper’s bugloss favoured the grassy areas, with a seeming preference for the same spots as wild oats. My picture is of a horned poppy which had also crossed into the grassy area, but normally they are another shingle specialist.

An oystercatcher striding along the edge of one of the pools at Rye Harbour Nature Reserve. Another sieves under the water for food.

A flowering abutilon (Indian mallow), with branches coming over the wall of a garden next to the end of the line bus stop in Rye Harbour.

There was a clear contrast in the vegetation of the shingled area of the Rye Harbour Nature Reserve. The shingle had broad stretches of bare pebbles, occasionally broken by one or other member a distinctive community of plants which could cope with the trying conditions. Elsewhere, all was what seemed like an unbroken carpet; many different grasses, interspersed with meadow wildflowers, some of them salt marsh specialities.

The only plants I noticed which managed to grow both sides of this divide were mallows, which happened to be in flower we were there.