Wow, going over the crest of Capel Hill on the Harty Road this morning everywhere looked beautiful. Under blue skies and glorious sunshine all of the Harty marshes were spread out before me, all shades of vibrant green. Capel Fleet was a hive of activity with numerous Mallard, Teal, Pochard, Tufted Duck and Greylag Geese and either side of the road were fields containing sheep and their new born lambs.
On the reserve the only thing that spoilt the day was the irritating and fairly strong wind which made hearing bird calls difficult at times, especially alongside the reed beds again. The White-fronted Geese flock remains in-situ and totaled 190 this morning plus 26 Mute Swans, 47 Avocet and 8 Marsh Harrier. There are still low numbers of Wigeon and Teal about as well, as reminders of the winter. It also remains fairly wet on the grazing marsh and recent flood levels seem loathe to drain off this time, it will certainly hold back the introduction of the grazier's cattle this year, although as far as the breeding Lapwings and Redshanks go that will be a good thing.
I saw just one Swallow today, which makes a total of four and one Wheatear over the last few weeks and it so typical of the Swale NNR that we are usually around three to four weeks behind other sites in respect of incoming migrants. To look at blogs on the KOS Website such as Dungeness, The Stour and Reculver, which already have long lists of spring migrants, which wouldn't be out of place on a summer's day, it makes you wonder why other sites in the same county can be so barren of the same.
Anyway, noticeable that last night's forecast of loads of sunshine today wasn't by Kaddy the useless and as a result was correct!
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