13th December - Elmley NNR, Kent

A weekend away at my daughter's place in Kent saw me with the opportunity to visit Elmley National Nature reserve.  Fortunately the weather was playing nice, but I did have to clear ice from my screen before I left.  As I crossed the Swale the marsh on the other side was swathed in mist.  I drove around to the entrance to the reserve and parked to wait for the opening time.  The rising sun and the mist made the marsh look special.

In a bush a short distance from where I was parked a Redwing was calling.

Starling were lined up on the telegraph wires just out of the mist.

This area is a mix of nature and industrial sites and with the mist it becomes quite scenic.

I drove the entrance track and it was very quiet, a single Marsh Harrier the only real sighting.  In the distance there were gun shots of the wild fowlers, apparently the harriers congregate there to pick up and mislaid bodies.

There are a lot of Pheasant around the marsh and as I pulled into the farm this female sat nicely in the morning sunshine.

I checked the bushes around the car park for the Long-eared Owls that have been reported, but once again no luck.  I set off down towards the Old School scanning the marsh.  I picked up a shape on a gate post.  On closer look it is a small falcon, possibly a Merlin, I will never know.

I was one of the first to the school house and struck lucky, one of the Little Owls sitting out in the sunshine.

Checking all the time.

The eyes partially open to shield from the low morning sunshine.

A final check on me.

With others walking down the path the Little Owl disappeared.  I decided to walk on down the path to the Bricklands, so called for the discarded bricks and concrete left alongside the Swale.  The reed bed was quiet, no sign or sound of the Bearded Tits.  On the pools were Gadwall, Teal and Mallard and this Little Egret fishing.

The tide was falling on the Swale, the water was dead calm, the industrial sites reflecting in the water.

On the shoreline were Shelduck, Redshank and a few Curlew, on the water a Little Grebe and two Great Crested Grebes, the closer of which was swimming in the reflection of the building.

Walking back up the path there wasn't any sign of the Little Owl, but there were a good number of Fieldfare, but they were extremely elusive.  Eventually I managed these two shots as one settled in an oak tree.

Moving on a pair of Raven flew over calling, this one coming over my head.

I headed out towards the hides, the marsh was still very dry and there was nowhere near the numbers of duck and geese I have seen here in past winters.  There were Wigeon whistling and groups of Brent, Canada and Greylag Geese.

The tide was out and there was plenty of mud.  Curlew were moving flying out to the mud flats.

Unfortunately these turned out to be Mute Swans and not the wild ones I hoped for.

There had been Reed Bunting in the reeds as I walked the path, but no sound of the hoped for Bearded Tits.  As I came to the double "S" bend I heard the familiar pings and a flock of about a dozen Beardies were in the reeds close to the path.

With the low light, once again it was not easy to see what I was shooting at and what the outcome was, but I was pleased with what I managed.

A classic gymnastic pose in amongst the reeds.

You are following all the movements in the reeds, this turned out to be a Redd Bunting female.

I was able to move down the path and view reeds over looking water.  This female appeared.

Spread eagles to get to the reed seeds.

Then a male on the edge of the reeds.

Some great poses.

Balancing once again.

Rather than walk on I decided to turn around, back down the track a male Reed Bunting posed nicely at the top of a hawthorn bush.

Back at the car park I learned something about the Short-eared Owls.  They think there are three to seven owls present.  They are very much nocturnal at the moment, coming out just before dusk.  This year all the owl species have had a bad year, a combination of the drought and the failure of the vole population.  It is thought at Elmley that the day flying owls are those that have arrived from Scandinavia where the days are short and they are happy to do so.  It doesn't seem like they have arrived this year.

I was going to stick around to see if any would come out of the roost, but with this news I decided to leave and drive the entrance track.  The light was low and I came across this group of Lapwing bathing before the roost.

The sun just catching the side of the bird as it fed.

I had two drives up and down the track, with little else of interest.  The marsh was dry, what water there was came from rain water which has little food for the waders such as Snipe and Black-tailed Godwits.  They have been pumping water from the pools to try and help.  It would seem this area has had very little rain.

As I left the reserve a Kestrel was sitting on a post.  I stopped reached for the camera and it flew of to land in the grass.  It sat there for a while and looked like it had caught something, but as it flew off there wasn't any sign of any prey.

Disappointing that I didn't get to see any Short-eared Owls, but once again the weather was lovely and there were plenty of other action to keep me busy.  This place though, needs a lot of rain.