The birds of Rye Harbour seemed to be more confiding than usual even outside the area of the actual Nature Reserve. This goldfinch was on a telegraph wire which crossed the road right by where the bus turned around. It didn’t give any signs of worry that I was almost directly below it.
On the Rye Harbour Nature Reserve, a skylark landed on a fence post quite close by. It didn’t seem disturbed by human activity, but its attention was focussed in the opposite direction to where I was standing, so my view was mainly of the back of its head. Before takin=g off again, it did briefly turn so I managed to get on picture of the bird in profile.
Growing among the grass by a footpath on the Rye Harbour Nature Reserve, a lot of wildflowers in flower at the time of our visit. Included among them, several pyramid orchids peeping through the grass leaves.
Only yards on the far side of the fence along the main path at Rye Harbour nature Reserve, a pair of oystercatchers with their already well-grown chick look for things to eat in the grass.
Views out from the Rye Harbour Nature Reserve, taken with a lens at a very high telephoto setting. At the eastern end of Rye Bay, Dungeness Head with the dominating presence of the nuclear power station. To the west, a steep cliff somewhere approaching Hastings. It was a long way away, and the high magnification has given the picture an impressionist effect: no filters. Between the two, the River Rother meets the sea.
Another oystercatcher feeding alongside what is presumably its chick in one of the nearer pools at the Rye Harbour Nature Reserve. This chick, clearly older and grown almost to full size, is the one closer to us in those shots where two birds are present.