Elmley & Harty

Just had to take advantage of a beautiful wintry sunny afternoon after so much grotty weather. So I decided to head back to Elmley to look for hares and anything else that might appear. Lapwings were much more in evidence since my last trip and using the car as a hide were not too difficult to get closeup photos although they had this habit of running in the opposite direction as soon as I had my lens on them.

A wigeon flock was in the pool and on the grassy bank behind the toilet block looking amazing in the light, one of my favourite duck.

In the late afternoon light the view toward Capel was stunning and believe it or not there is a close brown hare in this shot. It is probably only about 15 feet away.

Initially having a bit of a doze.

It soon realised that it had a camera lens pointing at it and slightly startled opened an eye but the car makes a good hide and it settled back down to its afternoon nap.

That's two trips and hares in almost the same place, so now I need to try and get closer, somehow!

Also drove along the Harty ferry road and found a couple of hares in the fields around Elliots farm but much more distant. At the viewpoint over the Swale a wonderful short-eared owl flew by and landed on one of the signposts just in front but just before I could get a shot a group of carrion crows started mobbing it and it flew across the Swale. One for next time, maybe!

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