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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Longfield

Haven't really been that inspired to get out much recently, grey days and all that. Still I have been getting the odd redwing in the garden, but it looks as though the pile of leaves carefully stacked up by the hedgehog have been blown to the four corners of the garden and the little pile that is left looks sodden. I haven't prodded whats left in the vain hope that hedgie might still be there but I don't really think so. To cheer myself up I have started a blog that allows me to reminisce and dust off my old slide collection. Before I went digital in 2005, most of the photos were taken with a Pentax P50 and then in 1990 I upgraded to a Canon EOS10. My selection of lenses was a little limited as I used a Tamron 500 F8 mirror lens and tamron 28-300 zoom, great fun.
My other blog can be found at http://rabbits-tales.blogspot.com/

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Elmley

Over the winter and spring I've set myself a personal target to try and get some photos of brown hare in Kent. I've read in a few places that the track to Elmley can be a good place to see them so I headed in that direction over lunchtime today. Certainly the access to the Isle Of Sheppey has changed with the new bridge now spanning the Swale but to get to the entrance for the Elmley track you still have to go over the old bridge and travel the old but now much quieter road onto Sheppey. Today I noticed a good sized flock of fieldfares and redwings in the hawthorn that ran alongside the track to the clay pigeon shooting site to the right of the Elmley track and decided to try my luck with an odd photo or two. The thrushes were very flighty around 150 fieldfares and 30 redwings and even using my car as a hide it was difficult to get very close. Annoyingly I had taken the wrong tripod mount for my camera so handheld shots it had to be or nothing. With the subject being back lit I had to compensate by setting the exposure against a more neutral colour even with spot metering. Greens and greys are useful for this so I exposed against the green hawthorn leaves and hoped to luck.
Fieldfare

Certainly both the fieldfares and redwings were feeding on the hawthorn berries and even drinking from a puddle in the road but these were just to skittish to enable a photo. I think fieldfares are one of the most handsome looking of thrushes and I have been lucky enough to see both fieldfare and redwing close up in the hand on the Orkneys. Certainly a redwing in the hand would not be a good advertisement for the merits of bird ringing as they make one hell of a racket, anyone passing by would think the bird was being murdered. On the contrary a fieldfare in the hand is totally passive, or at least the ones I have seen were. Anyway, I then went back to the start of the track up to Kingshill Farm and the Elmley RSPB reserve. The area looks just fantastic with grazing groups of cattle, flocks of lapwing, feeding curlews and the odd marsh harrier and kestrel but no sign of any hares. As I approached the car park at the farm I noticed a brown lump in a short cropped field just off to my right. Looking through my bins I confirmed that the lump was in fact a hare. At this time a helicopter decided to fly over and I took my eye off the hare for a moment. When I looked back into the field I saw two hares running toward me and across my front. Their turn of speed is just so impressive and they accelerate with such ease. I couldn't believe my luck when the two just stopped on the dirt track in front of me. I was still in the car and slowly poked my camera lens out of the car window expecting them both to race off but they sat there for a few moments.
Brown Hare

They then ran off into some thicker grass and I lost them. I certainly hadn't expected to see two hares in quite this way, what a treat. I turned my car around and headed back down the track to wait and see if they would re-appear. Eventually one did appear in the thick longer grass and a few more photo opportunities presented themselves. If only I had a more powerful lens.....still I'll have to save up for one but in the meantime a few more visits over the winter to hopefully see more of these wonderful animals.

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Longfield - Garden & Awards

The other week I glanced into the garden just before heading off to work and noticed a medium sized hedgehog wandering along the raised flower bed. Excited in having one in the garden I took my eyes off it for a few minutes to alert my wife, by the time I looked back in to the garden it had disappeared. I then saw it again wandering around the base of a spirea in its mouth was a load of dry leaves and a few berries. I wasn't sure what to make of it and thought it had been foraging and the berries and leaves had got stuck in its mouth. I then got distracted and by the time I looked back there it was again in the same spot this time with a new set of leaves in it's mouth. It then dawned on me that it was building a nest between the spirea and some pine logs that I have in the garden. This was confirmed when it appeared from beneath the pile of leaves to a well earned breakfast of cat food much to the indignation of our rather large tabby.

Given that I do have two hedgehog houses in the garden, they are either occupied or the decor is not to the liking of this particular individual. Either way it was an exciting and unexpected garden event. I'm not sure just how long the hedgehog had been building its winter home but it must have taken it quite some time to build the pile of leaves, pictured here in the centre.


Since 2005 I have been entering the joint run Council and KWT gardening for wildlife scheme and have been successful in winning a highly commended and two silver awards for my efforts. This year was the icing on the cake as I managed to get a gold award, I am so pleased and I have volunteered to be a garden assessor next year.

Also this week I received an award from the KWT for two photos that I entered in their wildlife photography competition. I was 'amazed' that I won first and third prize in the flora category with the following entries as it was all very spur of the moment.

1st Prize Winner in the Flora Category - Ox eye Daises at Yockletts Bank


3rd Prize Winner in the Flora Category - Bee Orchid Queendown Warren

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West Hythe - Military Canal

Couldn't resist going to try and see the Green Heron that had been seen at the dam on the military canal near West Hythe today and given it was raining and an otherwise gloomy day it was a good move as Lisa and I had an albeit wet but enjoyable time. Seems it has probably been in the area for at least 4 days according to some of the local dog walkers and has been seen walking about on the path that goes over the dam!
On arrival there wasn't much point in trying to get into the overflowing car park so we eventually managed to find a spot along the road running through the village although I think tempers of other motorists appeared to be strained as you had to weave in and out of the parked cars to make your way through. We then made our way back to the car park and along the track to the dam where in the heavy rain there were around 40 people admiring a very confiding bird that was oblivious to the small throng and concentrating on catching a morsal or two. Photography was a challenge in the driving rain but it had to be attempted and i'm pleased with these two snatched shots. Let's hope it stays around for a while and can be enjoyed in better weather.
Green Heron

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Longfield Gallops

I didn't go very far from home today and really just felt like going for a short walk. So I ended up in fields just north of Longfield called the gallops to discover that there was a finch movement happening. Small groups of chaffinches were migrating west using the predominently westerly wind to give them the lift needed for easier and efficient flight. The birds seemed to be using two small valleys to migrate along and i've tried to indicate their flightpaths on the map below. One was just south of Southfleet and the other seemed to be along the north ridge above Longfield.
The totals for my hour watch between 12:48 and 13:38 were chaffinch 191w, brambling 1w, skylark 21w and 31 in the fields, starling 155w and around 250 to the west of Longfield, 1 large female sparrowhawk, 1 reed bunting and 9 corn buntings. I know that migration can start at any time during the day but I did wonder what my totals might have been had I been able to get out earlier. Still it is great to know that a few steps from my door I can see migration in action. It was a shame I couldn't get there during the recent thrush movement last weekend as I did see 70 fieldfares and 20 redwings go over my garden early in the morning.

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Queendown Warren

Having looked for adders at Queendown Warren on Sunday in the late afternoon sunshine and failed, I thought I'd give it another go today in the lovely morning sunshine, however I still failed to find any. I did manage to see some there in October 2006 and I think these were my first adder sightings ever. As I wasn't blogging then i've posted a couple of photos from that time.

Adder Male

Adder Female

A nice cheeky herd of Exmoor ponies, have been at Queendown for a while now and it will be interesting to see the difference the grazing will make to the reserve as there is now also a small herd of cattle grazing on the main orchid bank. A few birds around, siskin flying over, bullfinch and a few goldcrests, 6 or so. Still the odd meadow brown on the wing along with singles of red admiral and small copper.

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Isle Of Grain

I've been out of the country for a while enjoying a holiday in Madagascar of which i'll be posting a 'knol' soon with a link to it from this blog. Whilst this weather may not be good for finding birds in north Kent it certainly is very pleasant to wander about in and I found myself at Grain this morning. There were unexpectededly good numbers of butterflies still on the wing. At one time I had 5 red admirals enjoying the nectar of a mature ivy along with several small whites and small coppers. My list for 3 hours of slow wandering was:
Red admiral 6, wall 1, small copper 3, small white 6, large white 1, migrant hawker 5, common darter 20, brent goose 24 flying into the swale, goldcrest 6, chiffchaff 4, med gull 1 ad wint, swallow 22s, house martin 2 s, siskin 3, blackcap 2, redpoll 2, little egret 4, stonechat 2 and whinchat 1.
It was also good to see that the outflow from Grain power station was in operation. In the past at the right time of year this has attracted feeding terns and associated skuas, i'm hoping that it isn't just a one off.

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Longfield - Moths

Competing against a full moon last night the mv trap managed to hold, angle shades 1, willow beauty 1, lesser yellow underwing 5, large yellow underwing 1, turnip moth 1, square spot rustic 2, setaceaous hebrew character 2, rustic 3 and pale mottled willow1.

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Isle Of Grain

What a beautiful afternoon and on the back of a fan-tailed warbler in north Kent and a honey buzzard movement along the English east coast I decide to visit Grain for a nose around. There were still some migrants lurking amongst the scrub namely, 6 blackcaps, 5 chiffchaffs and a goldcrest. The group of swallows that had been building up during my last visits seemed to have cleared out and despite a honey buzzard being seen flying south toward Kent from Wakering Stairs in Essex and another seen flying west over RSPB Rainham Marsh, I didn't see any, incompetence on my part, almost certainly :-). It didn't really matter as the invertebrates stole the show for me. Migrant hawkers, common darters, holly blues, common blues, small and large whites, small heaths, meadow browns, red admirals and several fresh comma's were taking full advantage of the glorious weather. I couldn't resist the following photos.
There were a number of holly blues on the wing along with plenty of competing common blues although they were mostly tustling with small heaths. The holly blues preferring the comparative peace of the upper foliage layers.

There are usually a few little egrets feeding on the shoreline as the tide goes out.

Migrant hawkers were very much in evidence in some places occuring in small swarms. The males are just great with their lovely blue markings.


Common darters were also around in good numbers and I'm particularly pleased with this shot. If common darters ate blackberries you might think it was saying 'hands off, this one is mine',

Common Darter

Almost destroyed this web but managed to see the wasp spider at the last minute. In my opinion Britains most beautiful spider, what a cracking beastie.

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