13/11/2016 Glorious Sheppey

Sunday 13 November 2016
Isle of Sheppey

5 of us from the East Grinstead RSPB Local Group travelled to the Isle of Sheppey.  The scheduled trip from yesterday was cancelled because of the poor weather conditions.  No such worries today with bright, clear skies.  We were rewarded with a lovely day's birding.

Shellness

• As we walked from the sea wall car park down to Shellness we saw our only hen harrier of the day, a ringtail flying low over the fields towards Leysdown.  We watched, in admiration, as the bird foraged on it's way.  This was my first hen harrier sighting of the autumn.  Other, more fortunate birders had also seen a male bird flying over the marshes at Shellness but it had gone to ground before we got there.

• As it was high tide just after we arrived, we decided to go past the concrete shelter to look for waders.  We got spectacular views of thousands of knot and oystercatchers huddled together on the shingle spit.  Of course the usual suspects were there in good numbers.  We had no luck with snow buntings or shore lark - hardly surprising with the large number of birders present today.

• A peregrine disrupted the calm these waders were enjoying and they were all up and away in a spectacular display before settling down again in the same place.

Capel Fleet 

• There were many marsh harriers here, many more than we had seen at Shellness.
• We searched in vain for the common crane that earlier birders had seen.  However our luck changed when we were advised to view from the hillside looking over the channel to the north.  Bingo - the crane was to the left of a derelict hut and, when the sun went behind the clouds, afforded some good but distant views.  We even saw it flying as it went to roost.
• Not long afterwards we got our first, of many, views of the short-eared owl in the hamlet to the north east of us.
• As we were driving away from Capel Fleet we were alerted to a close barn owl sitting on a post and looking immaculate in the evening light.  

A cracking trip with some exceptional birds, a species count well over 50 and some very good company.