Sunday 18 June 2017

Another Dawn Patrol

After a hot and sunny day yesterday it looks like being even hotter today and so Ellie and I were out early on the reserve. This is how it looked.

A few across the marsh

One of the reserve ditches

The sea wall fleet and it's wide reed beds from the sea wall, noisy this morning with Reed and Sedge Warblers

The Sea Wall hide

Which was being used as a perch by this pair of Oystercatchers

The sea wall fleet at ground level, it is almost a mile long and was probably created when the soil for the sea wall alongside was dug

 Horsetail, a very invasive water weed that is clogging up a lot of ditches and fleets on the reserve

 as this photo shows

A side ways look at the flower of Goatsbeard

 And lastly, Spiny Rest-harrow, the only place on Sheppey that I know of it growing.

6 comments:

  1. Would you say that the water levels have caught up Derek?

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    1. Actually no Pat, I left off one photo that showed the Water Lily patch now sitting 18ins above the water level where it has continued to drop.

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  2. It looks so lovely and peaceful there Derek - a delicate kind of beauty. It's easy to see why you love this place.

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    1. You got it dead right YP, especially when I go early in the morning, and it rarely changes.

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  3. Too bad about the horsetail invasion. Horsetails, in their natural habitat, are one of my favorite plants. What a beautiful morning for you and Ellie.

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  4. It was really lovely, but climbed to 32 degrees later but still nice.

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