BOC Day Trip to North Kent, 25th January 2020
Six BOC members assembled on a murky Saturday morning at Funton Creek, where a layby on a minor road not far from the crossing to the Isle of Sheppey affords extensive views over mudflats between the Chetney and Barksore Marshes. It was high tide and there was a scattering of common waders and a few Avocets in the middle distance, with Brent Geese and various ducks further out, and in the far distance Marsh Harriers and Common Buzzards were quartering the grazing marshes beyond the mudflats.
We moved on to Elmley NNR for a quick diversion to look for a species that was high on everyone’s wish list – Long-eared Owl. In recent days two or three of these birds had been roosting close to the car park. The reserve is no longer owned by the RSPB and we paid our £5 fee at the entrance gate. We took the long approach track slowly, but the large numbers of ducks, Lapwings and Golden Plovers usually present were not apparent this time, and we made do with Marsh Harriers and a Brown Hare. We scoured the bushes behind a pond by the car park without success, but a helpful volunteer who knew the best places to look very quickly struck gold. In reality, the owl wasn’t that far away and only a few layers of branches were in the way, but it proved very difficult to see. Over time we were able to combine our views of a handful of feathers and a left eye and turn them into a Long-eared Owl – a typical view of this secretive species. We scanned the adjacent fields as up to nine Short-eared Owls had been present recently, but apparently afternoon was the best time for these.
Our next stop was Shellness at the eastern tip of the Isle of Sheppey, where a rough track passes a line of shacks on the way to the remote Shellness Hamlet community at the far end, with towns of the North Kent coast ahead across the open sea and the River Swale. This river often provides shelter for sea-going species in rough weather but we found around six Red-throated Divers despite the calm weather. With high tide just an hour away, numbers of waders at the high tide roost were building up – initially many hundreds of Oystercatchers which were later joined by Grey Plovers, Turnstone and Knot. A walk along the seawall in the hope of finding wild geese just yielded Little Egrets, Linnet, many Marsh Harriers and huge flocks of Curlew and Brent Geese. The lack of ducks was surprising, with very few Wigeon, Shoveler and Gadwall, and no Teal or Pintail – maybe they all go to Oare Marshes on the other side of the River Swale these days.
It was time to move on to Capel Fleet where each afternoon in winter birds of prey gather to roost in the reedbed, and where a viewpoint has been made offering a slight height advantage over the flat landscape. Marsh Harriers and Kestrels were common here, and there was a brief view of a ringtail Hen Harrier, and a possible Short-eared Owl was watched over a distant field. Nearby a large flock of Corn Buntings were perching on wires and bramble bushes and Red-legged Partridges scuttled along the roadsides. The morning’s murk had never cleared so checking out distant swans for the rarer species was a challenge, especially with white farmyard geese present, but as we drove back we were lucky to see a small flock of Bewick’s Swans hiding behind a haystack and a large flock of Russian White-fronted Geese.
Our final stop of the day was a return visit to Funton Creek. High tide had been and gone, and the mud was covered with hundreds of Bar-tailed Godwits and many Avocets. The light, such as it was, was failing but despite calls to call it a day, we gave it another fifteen minutes. A buzzard flew into some trees behind us – a Common Buzzard on closer inspection, but then we got a call from some other birders and soon had our scopes trained on a Rough-legged Buzzard perched high in a tree, its pale head and upper breast contrasting with a black belly standing out well in the gloom. A perfect end to a successful day, and though our day list stood at a modest 62 species, it did include some very special species.
Robert Godden