The Reserve This Morning

(Double click on each photo to enlarge)

On the way to the reserve early this morning I stopped along the Harty Road to take this photo at Capel Hill Farm, which shows how harmony can be achieved between colours.


These new arrivals on the reserve looked charming in the early sun, the calves are Red Devon/Aberdeen Angus crosses.


Here you can see them with the low tide Swale and the mainland in the background.
Both cattle and sheep are vital tools on nature reserves, helping to create ideal grass sward heights for the various breeding birds.


Conditions on the reserve first thing were quite ideal, with unbroken sunshine and stillness and sounding quite weird as the mournful cries of Peacocks drifted across the fields from their home alongside Harty Church.
Bouyed by the fact that Sedge Warblers have been seen at Oare, just across The Swale, I walked the whole length of the wide Delph reedbeds hoping to hear one but to no avail, its normally a week or two later before they hop across the water. I ended up in the seawall hide, suitably sat amongst the reedbeds, where I waited for ages for a pair of Bearded Tits to come into clear camera range but they stubbornly stayed below reed top height, the little buggers.
One of the forms of entertainment in this particular hide is the graffiti from the visitors. Most of it refers to alleged sexual activities and positions in there, so if you ever see steam coming out of the viewing flaps anytime, I'd walk on by if I was you.

I continued on my way and had a wander along some of the reserve ditches, looking in vain for a first Coot's nest. Most years, some Coots on the reserve have their first nests by mid-March but so far this year I haven't found any, which is odd, although Coot numbers are lower this Spring out there.
I did find however, some nice clumps of White Dead Nettle, as below.


One of the features of the reserve over the last ten years has been the resident flock of white geese that originally flew down from Harty Church and decided to stay. They raise some goslings every year and normaly total 20-30 birds and have now also started hybidising with the feral Greylags there - see the two photos below.




They also serve another purpose during the winter months in that being weak flyers they provide meals for the local foxes, six were killed this winter, we can't have foxes being denied their rightful meals, can we.
Likewise, I found this freshly opened Greylag's egg this morning, it and no doubt many more to come, will have helped a poor Crow from going hungry!

A Nice Blog

It was pleasantly warm and sunny walking round the reserve earlier this morning, despite a blustery wind.
These calves with their parents were enjoying the morning at Capel Corner.


I stopped off at the Raptor Viewing Mound along the Harty Road but it was all very quiet, just a few Bearded Tits in the reed beds and some Marsh Harriers circling overhead.

Walking round the reserve itself it was obvious that the White-fronted Geese flock finally seems to have decreased in size, I could only find 40 and there were no others to be seen on the surrounding marsh, so presumably they've started heading north to breed. I did however come across my first Wheatear of the Spring, a nice female bird.
On the farmland alongside the reserve this tractor was turning over the remains of last years cover strips. These cover strips are to be found round the perimeters of most of the arable fields on Harty. They are re-sown every Spring with a mixture of maize, barley, millet and other seeds and as well as providing cover and food for the game birds they are of enormous benefit to finches and buntings throughout the winter. Reed Buntings in particular get great help from these strips and are often found in good numbers in them. Elmley NNR have created two such strips there to sow this Spring for the benefit of their small number of Grey Partridges and the passing finches and buntings.
It makes you wonder why more nature reserves don't do the same, and learn something from the much maligned farming fraternity.

Bloody Angry - An Explanation

Given the reaction to yesterday's blog, which initially was genuinely written in a fit of anger, let me give an explanation, starting first with a thank you.

Jan,(Shy Songbird) thank you for returning with your comments, I hadn't expected either you or Warren to, given that I thought that we had exhausted our opinions on the subject last weekend.

Dylan,
"Letters from Sheppey" is not purely a natural history blog, it also covers other countryside issues and local history and believe it or not, I hadn't had any red when I made my posting, or replies.
As for it being a "mind boggling contradiction" - really? I, and possibly alone, can see a huge difference between slamming people for shooting wildfowl for fun, especially some wildfowl species whose numbers are known to be falling - and reducing the numbers of an agreed harmful pest species and therefore protecting threatened species of birds. You may say that it is simply changing the arguement, or splitting hairs to suit myself but not at all, I would take the same stance on say fox hunting. I have no problem with foxes being killed as vermin - where they are killed by one swift shot - but would argue against them being chased round the countryside for fun first.

I accept that I have probably upset and lost some followers of my blog, who only expect to read nice things about the countryside but I can't be like some conservation bodies who present a nice public image but behind closed doors keep the nasty bits that they carry out, hidden. So to those who have been offended I would say that it is only my opinion on things but I do believe in trying to present the bad things as well as the good things that go on, so stick with me, good conservation is at the heart of what I do and say. It is not as nice and fluffy out there as some people might have you believe and sometimes even conservation has to be achieved by some brutal means.
And not only that Dylan, anybody that reads your excellent blog will know that you too have never baulked at saying what you feel and know might upset some people.

Bloody Angry

The photo below shows part of a hawthorn hedge that runs up my front drive between mine and my neighbour's drive. Against the piece of fence in the hedge a Blackbird is/was sitting on eggs in a nest. I fed the Blackbirds this winter all through the snow and ice, with sultanas, chopped apples and mealworms and they have rewarded that help by nesting in my garden.
This morning as I got in the car and looked back up the drive, I saw a Magpie drop into the hedge and alight straight away with an egg in its mouth and an inspection found one egg missing from the Blackbird's nest - quite clearly the other three are now doomed.

My views on Magpies and crows in the countryside are quite widely known - along with Grey Squirrels, the bloody things are responsible for taking a huge number of both songbird and wader eggs and chicks and need to be annually culled. I have three Magpie nests within 100 yds of my house and quite clearly, judging by this morning's experience, my neighbourhood is now going to become a songbird-free zone thanks to these birds.
And yet still, I am told by countless wildlife lovers that this does not happen, not because they have practical experience in the matter as I do, both at home and on The Swale NNR, but because they've read it somewhere, and even if it does happen, well I should accept it as part of nature. Well I'm sorry but I value endangered songbirds much higher than I do over-common, thieving corvids and I can make a guarantee that those Magpies near me have now made a fatal mistake.

First Martins and a List of Birds

We have had quite a few variations in the weather today. Dawn began with blue skies and a moderate frost and then as the sun came up it clouded over for a short while, then by mid-morning we were back to clear blue skies, vary warm sun and humid conditions and then by lunch time it had begun to cloud over again.
At the end of this posting I have listed the birds that I saw today, something that I rarely do and something that really surprised me.

Anyway, it was back to the reserve again this morning and the sign below points to the Harty Road turning and the reserve. Interestingly, if you double click on the photos and enlarge them, you will see on the road to Leysdown, behind the sign, the large plastic man that greets people into Leysdown. He changes his appearnce quite regularly.


I had another success as I wandered along the seawall this morning, 8 Sand Martins came winging across the saltings, over the heads of 180 White-fronted Geese feeding in the Flood and headed North across the reserve. That sighting was in some ways better than yesterday's Swallows because for some strange reason Sand Martins are rarely reported crossing the reserve in the Spring.
The rather hazy photo below also shows some of the Avocets taht were feeding in the Flood.

These two birds chose to watch me as I passed by in the car and so were snapped through the open window.




Birds seen today, both on the reserve and the farmland just over the fence.

Little Grebe - Cormorant - Little Egret - Grey Heron - Mute Swan - White-fronted Goose - Greylag Goose - Canada Goose - Brent Goose - Shelduck - Wigeon - Gadwall - Teal - Mallard - Shoveler - Pochard - Tufted Duck - Marsh Harrier - Hen Harrier - Kestrel - Peregrine - RL Partridge - Pheasant - Coot - Moorhen - Oystercatcher - Avocet - Golden Plover - Lapwing - Snipe - Curlew - Redshank - Green Sandpiper - Black-headed Gull - LBB Gull - Herring Gull - Stock Dove - Wood Pigeon - Barn Owl - Green Woodpecker - Skylark - Sand Martin - Meadow Pipit - Pied Wagtail - Wren - Robin - Blackbird - Bearded Tit - Great Tit - Magpie - Carrion Crow - Jackdaw - Starling - Chaffinch - Greenfinch - Goldfinch - Linnet - Corn Bunting - Reed Bunting.

60 species! - that has honestly amazed me, especially when you consider that I didn't go to the coastal fringes where I could of added Knot, Dunlin, Turnstone, etc, etc.

First Swallows

It was back to the reserve this morning after my little excursion to Warden Point yesterday looking for migrants and like they say, there's no place like home. As I walked across the marsh this morning my first Swallow came zipping across the reserve in front of me. Later, as I was passing through the reserve's entry gate on my way out, a second Swallow also came past. Today's Swallow was one day later than that of last year but my earliest still remains as the 15th March 2009.
Seeing that first Swallow is one of the year's special events - like looking at the simple beauty of a Primrose flower, like suddenly in the depths of a hot summer's day hearing a Carpenters song, like coming home from a freezing cold, mid-winter dusk and sipping at that first glass of something, like all those things that suddenly, out of the blue make you feel good.

Apart from that little bit of excitement the reserve was fairly quiet, with nothing else out of the ordinary, still small flocks of Teal and Wigeon and the 200+ Whitefronts but Tufted Duck and Pochard are in better numbers than the last few years, with 15-20of both types most days. Probably meagre by some peoples standards but good counts for us and a delight to see when bunched together and I look forward to a few broods of their delightful ducklings.
As is usual most mornings, the Barn Owls were still out hunting in the daylight and this one sat on the fence and watched me drive by. I managed to photograph it a split second before it opened its wings and flew off.


Along the Harty Road I stopped to watch this Hare as it wove huge figure of eights through a flock of sheep and lambs, always with its nose to the ground and I imagine it was probably following the scent of another one that had been there earlier. Given the time of year the other one had possibly left a particularly enticing smell behind.
One other sighting along the road was a flock of 78 Corn Buntings on the overhead power cables, always a joy to see but never easy to photograph.


My garden pond is looking a bit bare at the moment where I have been doing some renovation work at the rear during the winter but the frog spawn in the middle of the weed is now starting to hatch.

A Change of Scene

I've spent part of every morning this last week on the reserve and to be honest, walking the same patch and seeing pretty much the same birds every day, gets a tad boring, or at least it does for me.
This morning I decided to give it a miss and have a change of scenery and so drove out to the cliff tops at Warden Point. In my mind I was hoping to catch sight of a spring migrant such as Swallow, Sand Martin or Wheatear as they passed along the cliffs on Sheppey's northern coast. Unfortunately this morning until lunchtime, when a warm and hazy sun broke through for the afternoon, was gloomy with a cold E wind and this was accentuated as I stood up on top of the cliffs looking out into a murky Thames Estuary. It was bloody cold and as a result and through watering eyes, I saw bugger all, apart from the odd crow riding the thermals below. It was also noticeable how much more of the cliffs had broken away over the winter and tumbled downwards towards the sea, in some cases to sit halfway down as a small circle of turf with a bush still growing out of it.
The difference occurred as I walked back away from the cliff edge and below the taller trees and shrubs and hedges that back onto the cliffs, the cold air disappeared, warmth came down from the overcast sky and bird song was everywhere. This to me was experiencing what inland bird watchers must get most of the time, shelter, warmth and birds to match. If I'd of been on the reserve this morning I'd of had that cold wind for the whole visit and both I and the birds would of been keeping our heads down. Would I swap, no, but it was nice to be spoilt by such conditions for a change, I assume that inland bird watchers rarely wear thick winter clothing.
Anyway enough of that bleating, did I see anything worthwhile at all, yes I did actually. The whole area was alive with the song of Great Tits, Blue Tits, Chaffinches, Greenfinches, Linnets, Blackbirds, Dunnocks, Wrens, etc. and I even saw a large polecat ferret run across the road in front of me - not a good animal to be loose in the countryside but it was gone before I could do anything. A nearby rookery was bursting at the seams with cawing rooks and I counted 47 nests, some still being completed. Then, all of a sudden, in the space of a few minutes, better birds suddenly put in an appearance all in one brief burst. Above me in some very tall populars, a Chiffchaff began singing, 18 Redwing flew across the road and what I at first thought was going to be a Blue Tit, turned out to be a Firecrest working its way through a hawthorn bush - great stuff!

Getting back to the car, I stood there for some time and soaked up this whole plethora of woodland bird song, noted violets and arum lily under the hedgerow, Slow bush flower buds bursting into flower and attracting bees and found it hard to believe that the wet, muddy and cold marshes were only a few miles away. Mmmm, there's a lot to be said for being cossetted by woods and copses at this time of the year.