Famous Last Words

Well, well, "famous last words" as they say and mine were to title my last blog "The Drought Goes On". Yesterday and overnight, we have had many hours of heavy rain, near gale force N winds and a drop in temperatures. After spending most nights over the last couple of months sleeping with the bedroom window open, last night I lay there listening to the rain being lashed against the glass by the wind and it could so easily of been a winter's night.
Having completed harvesting the rape, baling it's waste straw and disc-ing the top couple of inches of soil ready for re-sowing with winter wheat, I imagine the farmers were looking to turn their attention to harvesting the corn and spring barley next. This last week both crops have looked as dry, ripe and golden as can be but unfortunately this morning, after the rain, they were quite sodden. With more heavy rain due tomorrow afternoon and an unsettled week ahead, the harvest could be delayed somewhat and possibly need drying when they do get it in, which is expensive. Mind you, at least a combine machine can do one field in a couple of hours while the weather's dry, imagine how stressful it must of been when they did it by hand over several days and had to try and beat the weather.

Venturing out onto the reserve this morning I was at least expecting puddles all round the track but there were none. The only real sign that it had rained hard was the fact that the surface soil of the marsh was moist but hopefully that will encourage a degree of grass growth, or even a nice mushroom or two. It has to be also hoped that the heavy rain, while not adding to the ditch levels, has at least re-oxygenated them.

During the night, as I lay in bed listening to the rain and wind on the window, I suddenly thought of the Kestrel chick that was out in the open by the nest box on the reserve. Oh no, surely that ball of mainly fluff is going to be sodden and cold but no, when I got there this morning thereit was atop the old railway sleeper, calling for food and dry as a bone. How could that be? - well just below it is a short length of old drainage pipe and looking inside I could see the evidence that the bird had spent the night sheltering in there, before hopping on top of the sleeper in order to call for it's breakfast

The Drought Goes on

Those of you who know the Harty Road will recognise the next photo, it's Capel Fleet at "Capel Corner". This normally wide and fairly deep body of water has been reduced to a very shallow and smelly stretch, choked with large areas of green blanket weed.

 So shallow in fact that this Heron is now able to wade well out into it in search of food.

Likewise, here is the reserve's Flood Field from the seawall with it's once flooded rills just visible as dry earth amid the blanket covering of club rush and docks. Hard to believe that as recent as the late Spring/early summer that this was still 70% wet or waterlogged and full of waders and wildfowl. At some stage in the next month or so it will get it's annual mow but is unlikely to wetten up much before the New Year.

 At one gateway as I wandered round, the reserve's herd of cattle and their calves stood defiant on the track as if challenging the dogs and I to try and pass through the gate. We did of course, they simply moved aside as we walked through them, a couple of belches and the odd stream of liquid poo being their bored retorts.

 Over the next few weeks we will probably enter one of the less savoury annual events on the reserve, the rabbit Myxomatosis season. Normally during every July and August this painful disease will strike the rabbits and decimate the small colonies that we have left of them on the reserve. I haven't seen any sign of it so far but it's pretty much guaranteed to happen and then, as well as looking awful with swollen eyes and rear ends, the poor blinded creatures become prey to everything that passes. This not only means that we struggle to retain any rabbits on the reserve until the survivors replace their numbers but it becomes a problem with my terriers. I have to try and keep the dogs away from the warrens because instead of the usual high speed chases that amount to few kills, the dogs can simply walk up to the rabbits, pick them up and kill them. It puts the rabbits out of their misery but given that they are normally heaving with fleas which transfer to the dogs, it means that I then have to de-flea the dogs by picking them off, before taking the dogs home. One of the less savoury joys of having working dogs!
Finally, getting back to the Kestrel's nest site on the reserve, I could hear the noisy screeches of a chick calling for food, one of them had left the nest box and was sitting on an some railway sleepers nearby. Why it had chosen to leave the comfort of the box while still barely feathered I don't know, but it seemed strong and healthy and so I decided to leave it where it was rather than try and put it back and risk disturbing the other two chicks who were watching what was going on.

Rumbles in the Countryside

Driving through the farmland spinney/copse whatever, that gives us access onto the reserve yesterday I was struck by how much it has all filled in and become pretty much perfect for wildlife. It doesn't cover a huge area but twenty years ago it was little more than an area of grass backing onto a shallow pond surrounded by old willow trees. Horses and the odd goat, would sometimes graze it hence the reason we still know it as the "horse field", but then the farmer, in order to enhance the shooting interests on his farmland, began a massive bush and tree planting operation that has resulted in many areas such as the "horse field".

Nowadays it is home to an impressive list of breeding birds, aided by several nest boxes put up by myself. Breeding birds such as Whitethroats, Blue, Great and Long-tailed Tits, Robins, Wrens, Blackbird, Jackdaws and possibly Little Owl, have all done very well in recent years.
The only downside is the fact that the privately owned farmhouse alongside is the home of that notorious scourge of the countryside, four free-roaming cats. Unfortunately these cats spend much of their time in and around the spinney and at least one or two broods of newly hatched pheasant chicks have disappeared as a result.
Whilst it's not all good, shooting can result in positive and well managed habitat for wildlife and the view below, across part of Harty, shows some of the hedging, trees and scrub introduced and flourishing under the management of the two farmers there.

My own addition has been the regular addition over the years of many willow whips around the barn area that are now mature, part masking the barn and providing an attraction to passing migrants.

 I've brought the subject up again after spending time in recent months trying to rationalise the deeply entrenched and extreme views of a couple of those "guardians" of the countryside, the antis, bunny-huggers, call them what you like, who refuse to accept that there is such a thing as a good farmer or shooter, despite evidence to the contrary, and that nothing, down to the tiniest insect should ever be killed. Not satisfied with aiming their extremist views at the more obvious targets in the countryside (nice pun), a couple of bloggers in particular, are now extending their vitriol to other innocent countryside users, with dog walkers being the current favourite. It clearly comes across in their blogs that they find it hard to accept that anyone not carrying a camera or pair of binoculars should be allowed in the countryside and in the case of one over the years this has included rants, sometimes quite nasty, about horse riders, walkers, fishermen, gardeners, horticultural students, children and of course dog walkers. None of these as far as I could see, were doing anything deliberately damaging or provocative, they were simply and innocently enjoying the countryside, as is their bloody right!
In a recent blog one of the guys was suggesting that something should be done about dog walkers who walk their dogs and potentially, (without intention I imagine) scare some birds along a shoreline. I wonder how many times he has done the same but by carrying binoculars doesn't see it as the same. Anyway, a comment to the post by his chum said "bring on dog flu"- nice!
The thing, among others, that amuses me about many of these "perfect" naturalists is their blinkered view of their own actions while out and about. They attract all manner of ego-boosting comments on their blogs by posting superb photographs of, for instance, the latest craze - dragonflies and butterflies, but at what cost to their habitat. Sometimes several photographers might walk up and down a meadow looking for and trying to photograph a particular butterfly but what about the things that are not obvious, the eggs and larva of that butterfly hidden in the vegetation that they are trampling. Now if that was a dog walker walking through that very same meadow, oh dear, imagine the vitriol that would be aimed at him or her.
Recently, one very popular and brilliant odunata photographer did have the honesty to admit to me that while wading through some shallow water and reed bed looking for emerging odonata larva, he was probably trampling on some that were still under the water and yet to emerge.
So before some of these people dive into their next diatribe about what a pain other countryside users are, they ought to think about glasshouses and stones and if you're curious as to who this grumpy old git is, well there I am below, at Reculver a couple of weeks ago on my 68th birthday.

Harvest Time

Dragging myself away from the Test Match for a while, time for another blog.
All across Harty the fields are golden with ripe rape, corn and in a few places, spring barley - it's harvest time!
Unfortunately this photo was spoiled a bit by the early morning overcast sky but you can see how close the crops are to being cut.

Here though the rape cut has begun and the field will be left looking quite featureless and very dry and I'll be very surprised if that dryness doesn't see poor yields this year.

On the reserve two Kestrel chicks are growing well and were having a look at the outside world that they will soon be inhabiting. They were both ringed recently so that we and the BTO can keep tabs on them.

A couple of Barn Owl chicks, also ringed, will also soon be leaving the nest and although many broods are late this year, Sheppey has several successful nests, although according to the BTO, nationwide this year Barn Owls have not had a very good breeding season.
Going back to the dry conditions, the photo below shows one of our access tracks on the reserve. Between New Year and May it was impossible to get along this track due to the width and depth of the water, with the water at one stage up to the base of the short earth face of the slope and so around two foot deep - now look at it.

To the left of the above photo is a largish area of water and soft mud where the "S Bend Ditch" is drying out, both here this morning and at the Flood Field puddle, there was not a single bird to be seen. It's all a pretty boring trudge round, with everything looking very dry and tired and only the reed beds have any real sign of bird life as the Reed Warblers continue to sing and no doubt breed. Summer is slipping away and it's a bit of a shock to realise that we're only six weeks away from the start of the shooting season although apart from the geese there will be very few ducks to shoot at, I only saw two this morning!
With flowering plants now at a premium across the marsh these clumps of Ragwort in flower become very important for the bees, butterflies and moths.

None more so than the Cinnabar Moth caterpillars, who feed on the leaves of the plant.

A Change in the Weather

After several days of hot, or very hot and sunny weather, it was quite a shock to get up early this morning to heavy grey skies, a chilly NW wind and later, heavy showers. Walking across the reserve not long after, there was an almost autumnal feel to things, although there is the promise of more prolonged and hot and sunny weather later this month.
What the hot and dry weather has done is to intensify the drought that is beginning take hold on the reserve, there is very little fresh, green plant growth appearing now and the grass has a dry and brittle look about it. The ground is dust dry and cracked and the ditches smell of rotting eggs as their water levels continue to drop and becomes more and more devoid of oxygen. The Greylag Geese and their juveniles are now gathered in small flocks along the edges of the Delph fleet for safety as they hard into their moults now - it's been a good year for both Greylag and Canada Geese goslings this year. A lot of the Lapwings have moved away now as the ground hardens up but a few small post-breeding flocks remain and for them it has been just an average breeding season at best. To add to the autumnal feel, the passage waders have begun to appear around the muddier areas, mostly Green Sandpipers but we did have a Spotted Redshank yesterday, an uncommon bird on the reserve these days.
So to summarise, it's bone dry, with yellowing grazing areas, fast disappearing water levels and few birds, quite boring to be honest.

However, during this last week my girlfriend wanted to go to Reculver Towers to re-create an old family photograph taken there in 1953. Now the Towers have been a feature across the sea on the mainland horizon all my life and yet remarkably I've never visited there, despite the area being well known for it's regular rare birds and only being a fairly short car ride away. Directly below the Towers, (the remains of an old church), is the sea and the coastline stretches east and west in both directions.

After the first visit, we had enjoyed it so much that we went back a second time, mainly so that I could wallow in the sight of a large number of birds, not the rare ones mind you, but Sand Martins. They have two colonies in the sandy cliffs not far to the west from the public car park and for me were as exciting as any rare bird.

For whatever reason, there were two distinct colonies along the cliff face, about 80 yards apart and according to Chris Hindle on his excellent Reculver blog  http://reculverbirding.blogspot.co.uk/ the nest holes total 203 holes. I sat watching the birds swarming around and in and out of the nest holes for some time, quite enthralled. My pleasure stemmed from pure nostalgia I think. During the 1950's/early 1960's we had a similar colony at Minster cliffs here on Sheppey and as a youngster I spent several summers watching for the birds to return from their winter quarters in Africa and begin nesting again. Unfortunately cliff falls began to alter the lay-out of the cliff face and the eventual tall growth of silver birch and willow trees further down the cliff pretty much obscured the nest site and we haven't seen them the birds there for the last fifty-odd years. It therefore brought back lots of childhood memories to see the birds in that way again and for me, far better than seeing the Icterine Warbler that was close by recently.

Heatwave at Last

At last, after a pretty awful Spring and early Summer, we finally have some hot and sunny weather. It's fantastic, 30+ degrees and I'm loving it but I wonder how quickly the first moans about it being too hot will start.
Breasting the top of Capel Hill at 7.00 this morning and looking down across the flat lands of the Harty marshes, the predominant colour was yellow. The dry weather of the last few months has seen the grass struggle to grow at any acceptable rate and now, with a few scorching days, wherever livestock have been for some time the fields are looking dust dry and almost billiard table flat. The rape is also well forward and yellowing off and it can only be a few weeks before that is harvested. The only really green areas are the fields of winter corn but unless we get some appreciable rain over the next few weeks I imagine that there will be few plump grains in the ears as they ripen.

Here you can see the kind of dry and yellow pasture that the sheep are struggling with.

And the view down across Capel Fleet as it snakes it's way across the marshes towards The Swale in the distance.

Once on the reserve this view eastwards down The Swale towards distant Reculver shows the strong sun reflecting back off of the sea and making the blue sky look dark. You can also sea the light grey of a distant fog bank well out to sea.

It was low tide in The Swale this morning and so Horse Sands were high and dry but there was very little on them, not even the regular seals.

Just the other side of one of the boundary fences separating the reserve from the neighbouring farmland, the farmer has sown a ten metre wide cover strip consisting of many wild flowers, this Chicory is one of them. It has currently grown to around six foot tall and is in full flower and attracting countless bees.

I know that he, like many farmers, gets a subsidy for sowing such strips but who cares when we get such valuable habitat for wildlife - well done that farmer!

As for the reserve in general, well butterflies are becoming the main attraction as we now go into mid-summer heat and dryness and it looks like it could be a good one. Meadow Browns, Small Heaths, Small Skippers and some Small Tortoiseshells are all beginning to show in increasing numbers now. The 700-800 Peacock caterpillars that I counted a couple of weeks ago have now all disappeared, leaving large clumps of bare nettle stems behind, they will now be pupating close by, ready to emerge as beautiful new butterflies over the coming weeks.
Water levels have now dropped dramatically and the Flood is now struggling to be even a Splash but it does mean that for a brief period we have some shallow water with muddy fringes and as a result the first few returning waders have begun to drop by. Yesterday there were two Little Ringed Plovers and today, two Green Sandpipers.
Working my way back round the reserve I spotted these bulrushes now coming into flower, the male part is at the top and dark brown and the female part, which later becomes the brown part that we all know, is below.

Naked Egoism

After my last post showing the reserve in a pictorial light and giving an opinion or two that annoyed a couple of people, perhaps it's time to ease back on that crap and write more of what interests me, I rarely manage to properly portray my love of the reserve anyway. So more of the looking back and historical stuff - show myself in a different light - as this posting clearly does!
The photo below, cropped to save upsetting people again, is of me coming out of the sea in 1984 on the Sheppey Nudist Beach. I was 37 at the time and almost as fit as I've ever been and as you can imagine, it is a far cry from the tired old man of 68 that looks back at me from the mirror today - old age is so full of "if only's".

So how did this naked chapter of my varied life come about?

Well I've been obsessed with sunbathing for most of my life, though perhaps not so much nowadays, and around 1980/81 the local council had made the beach, close to Shellness hamlet, just 15 mins drive from my house, available for naturalists. As you can imagine it caused quite a storm with all the usual old fuddy-duddies and religious types, with one vicar threatening to set dogs on people seen parading themselves unclothed on the beach there. Nothing came of that though, as is normally the case, and the beach began to attract a number of people anxious to get an all over tan and I suppose, the odd person anxious to see naked women.

The thought of totally being free of clothes and tanning the only white part of my body left, quite appealed to me but I was unsure about being a lone male up there. Fortunately, talking to a workmate about it, he and his wife and young children had already started going there and he suggested that I do the same with my wife at the time and young stepdaughter. I discussed it with them and they thought it a great idea and so the very next weekend we joined up with the other family on the beach there. The beach was and still is, one of the few sandy ones on Sheppey and backed up by sandy hollows at the top of the beach, ideal for sheltering from any wind. 

Over the next few weeks we quickly established a small group of 4-5 families, one who travelled from Surrey each weekend, and would group our windbreaks in one continuous line behind which we would all pile in together, men, women and several young children, enjoying a laugh, a chat and serious sunbathing. We didn't have skin cancer and Factor 30 phobias in those days, just smothered ourselves in pure coconut oil and gently fried to a deep and amazing tan. Mind you, it was important the very first couple of visits there to only gradually tan white bits that had never seen the sun before, there was nothing more uncomfortable than starting the working week with a pair of sun-burnt bollocks and arse. Once they'd caught up with the rest of my body though they became as tanned and leathery as the rest of me - I swear by the end of the summer my bollocks were so leathery that you could of struck a Swan Vestas match on them. 

Throughout the 4-5 years that we all regularly socialised and sunbathed there the beach was always a very much family orientated place, it was only many years later, after we'd all long stopped going there, that it gradually became a known meeting place for gays and the like. Many friends and workmates found it hard to understand or accept how we could sit stark naked, shoulder to shoulder with friends wives but in all honesty it was never much different to talking to them in Tescos with their clothes on. I firmly believe that the young children also grew up with a far less inhibited view of both theirs or adults' naked bodies as well. Talking these days to my now, 46 yr old stepdaughter, she feels that by exposing her to all the mysteries of adult bodies at an early age that she grew into teenage life far better equipped to deal with such things.

Did we have any wife-swapping, sex parties, or men walking about with erections that they couldn't control - no to all of it and we weren't weird or perverted either, just ordinary families enjoying sunbathing. There were the occasional "gawpers" that walked along the beach but they never caused any problems and were always easily identifiable. They were normally pure white, because they didn't really sunbathe, and often were of the pot-bellied older type with very small cocks that they rarely saw, hidden beneath their pot-bellies. They would appear at one of the beach and very self- consciously remove their clothes, fold them neatly and then walk the length of the beach, pretending that they weren't actually looking at anybody in particular. We would all stand up and wave to them, causing them to rush back to their clothes and disappear quickly.

They were great times and after the first year we had all enjoyed it so much that our group of several families also spent two weeks together of the next two summers at one of Britain's largest nudist camps near Ringwood in the New Forest. There we all had individual family cabins, a communal kitchen cabin where we took it in turns to cook breakfasts, an evening club house and numerous other like minded families from all round Europe. Regular days out were spent at the fantastic long nudist beach at Studland Bay, close to Poole Harbour.

All in all they were a fabulous 4-5 years but gradually other family needs/interests made inroads into our times at the beach, we gradually stopped going, we drifted apart, I found it just as easy to sun-bathe naked in my garden and it all ended.