Elmley: Tits, Owls and Wide Open Spaces!

 I've not seen an Owl for ages, with none seemingly in Sussex, heard no reports and the places I've tried have been Owl-less we decided to bite the bullet and make the trip up to Elmley National Nature Reserve on the Isle of Sheppey, where up to fifteen Shorties were being reported. I haven't been to the reserve for several years, it's an excellent place but the opening hours are pants and it gets crowded, but it does have good birds!! 

We arrived at about 9.45 after an uneventful journey, first shock was the entry fee!! Last time I went it was a fiver per car in the honesty box, now it's eight quid each!!!!😱😱😱😱  Still the lady on the gate sold it to us with her talk of Owls, Harriers, Beardies and a Bittern wandering down the track, so I gritted my teeth and handed over the dosh, reports of clouds of moths being seen over the car when I opened my wallet are greatly exaggerated😂!! In all seriousness, I don't suppose it's that expensive in the grand scheme of things, cheaper than most attractions and I think if you live locally they do some sort of season ticket!!! 

We headed down the track, for those that haven't been, Elmley has an entrance track across the wet grassland, it's about two miles long, you can drive along slowly and using your car as a hide get fabulous close views of the birds, you are not allowed to get out of your car to avoid disturbance. The advantage of this is you get awesome close views of the birds, the disadvantage is you dislocate several body parts attempting to follow the birds with the camera and also forgetting to turn the engine off means you get some funky pictures presumably caused by the vibrations!! I also nearly took Margie out with the big lens tracking a Marsh Harrier!!

Below are Margie's pics of this drive, capturing the wide open spaces, lovely in the sunshine!! However at this point Margie accidently changed the settings on her camera, which means after this her pictures turned out to be short videos!! She spent quite a while trying to change them back, this involved a lot of button pressing and even more swearing😂😂😱😱!!!!

Think her pics below give a sense of the place!

There are loads of birds across the wet grassland, Lapwings in profusion, Curlew, Black-tailed Godwits, Ruff, Starlings, Skylarks, Meadow Pipits and Coots lots of Coots!! Marsh Harriers, Buzzards and a distant Kestrel the highlights on the Raptor front. As you drive along, large flocks go up in the distance it is a great experience!!

Meadow Pipit, with funky background, think this is down to engine vibration!

Marsh Harrier silhouette,

Lapwing

Ruffs

Skylark

Snipe

Lapwing

Did a couple of displays like this

Skylark

Curlew

Curlew

Black-tailed Godwit

Marsh Harrier

Quite pleased with this one on manual focus

We arrived at the car park, not sure if there have been any Long-eared Owls in the bushes here this year but I couldn't  find any in the two minutes I spent looking!! 😂 There was Pied Wagtail strutting around the car park though! There was also a cocky Robin that got in someone's car!!

We decided to head for the ruin, where a Little Owl had been reported, on the way down the first Owl of the day appeared a Shortie but sadly distant!

Short-eared Owl on a post!

Predictably there was no sign of the Little Owl at the ruin, we were told later by a couple of Wardens that it had been flushed by three people who were actually inside the building!!!😡 In general everyone we saw was well behaved, staying on the paths etc, but you always seem to get some who spoil it! I was amazed how many photographers, with big lens who didn't have Binoculars, was definitely the vast majority of the people we saw. They must miss so much, but I suppose if you only want pics, if the bird is not viewable through the view finder and therefore out of range there's no point in looking at it!! Each to their own I suppose! 

We looked down the hill over the distant reedbed there seemed a gathering of people so we headed down to investigate, accompanied by a couple of Stonechats

We arrived at the reedbed, Beardies were the center of attention, nice and close, also a Cetti's Warbler just as close but a lot less posy! On the other side of the track we were treated to a displaying male Marsh Harrier a cracker of a bird, in the end there were four Marshies interacting was difficult to decided what to focus on!!

Male Bearded Tit

Kestrel was knocking about the area

Female Bearded Tit

Cetti's Warbler showy as ever!!😂

Male Marsh Harrier, sadly the display was quite high, but fantastic to watch in the bins

Back to the Beardies

A Wren popped up!

Back to the Harriers

We tore ourselves away, as we neared the top of the hill a Barn Owl flew by heading down the hill!!! Obviously I missed the close shots😏, but managed to get a few as it flew away!

Barn Owl

Kestrel also showed quite well

We headed back towards the car park another Barn Owl, but the other side of the trees, which of course the camera decided were more interesting than a close range Barn Owl 😂😢

We decided to head for the hides a long old walk but the weather was nice, this walk isn't really about individual birds, but the wide open spaces and the hordes of wildfowl and waders flying around the place, spooked, coming off the Swale or distant flocks of Geese. Did see a few Reed Buntings and a Redshank at the hides! 

Margie had her camera working again by this point, hurrah! Think her pics below give a sense of the walk!

I got a few pics myself obvs!

I've seen Merlin across here in the past and although I scanned a lot couldn't get one today!

Flock of wildfowl, mostly Wigeon

Sky full of birds

Lapwing

Wigeon

Marsh Harrier, nice to see so many

Redshank

Meadow Pipit

Reed Bunting

Flyover Curlew

Black-tailed Godwit

We arrived back at the car park, someone told us the Little Owl was back so we headed back to the ruin, gotta be said we are doing some miles today!! 

The pictures below are not that great, a distant Barn Owl, an even more distant male Hen Harrier and a bit of a Little Owls head!! 😂

Barn Owl, quite like pics like this showing them in their habitat

A bit of a Little Owl, we saw it move it's head, so defo a real one😀

With eye shut!

Hen Harrier, miles away but plenty of fun trying to get others present on it, Margie eventually got on it and carried on the commentary while I got these pics, was moving quick!

Great stuff!! We headed back to the car park where the Shorties were performing well!!

Short-eared Owls

Distant Barn Owl

A fabulous half n hour, with time ticking on, the reserve shuts at four, we headed off for a slow drive down the track, highlight was a Shortie sitting calm as you like by the side of the track while we lined up to take pics! Lowlight was missing the Bittern which apparently put on a great show 20 yards behind us😢, last action was a pair of Shorties having a battle, though all the pics missed the action!!

And it's off!!

Didn't go far!

A pretty epic day's birding, five miles walked, Margie's hoping to stop aching at some point in February💓 It is a fantastic reserve and even though there were loads of people there it's big enough to find some space, the Shorties will live long in the memory, think I've well and truly had my Owl fix!!

 We headed home, turning the radio on we heard the news that Margie's beloved Tractor Boys had been kicked out of the FA cup, by a team 402 tiers below them in the football pyramid 😂😂😂😂 I was of course, as you'd expect fully sympathetic and supportive, reminding her that Ipswich can now concentrate on the league and dropping out of the automatic promotion places into a battle for the play offs, this went down quite well though her reply is not suitable for a family audience!!😱😱😱 My pleasure  was slightly dented when the mighty Whites conceded a late equaliser against Plymouth😢 but you can't win em all!!