Sheppey Part II

After the previous trip to Sheppey my next outing was to Leysdown and Shellness.   The tide was fully in, so no shore watching, but a close view of Sandwich Tern and a delightful Wheatear more than made up for it, along with several Large White and Common Blue butterflies.

At Shellness the nudist beach car park was full, as were the dunes!   A bright sunny day had brought out the sunbathers.   The birdwatchers were fewer, with only three cars in the end car park, we only saw two other folk on our walk.

Sea Campion

We moved towards the blockhouse for the usual high tide roost beyond the old 'Little Tern beach'   Sadly it is a long time since the terns nested here, but the ropes and signs remain in the hope of their return, and in the meantime the area offers a small element of protection for huge numbers of Oystercatcher and Ringed Plover.   I would add that a full fence would be more effective than a string of rope, as a large dog ran around in the area whilst we were there, with no intervention from the owner.   Luckily on this occasion it did not get as far as the roosting birds, but it would have caused mayhem in a breeding colony.

Migration was well underway with more Wheatear, Linnet, Meadow Pipit, overe 30 Sandwich Tern, Common Tern, Turnstone, Redshank, Swallow and a family of Yellow Wagtail found.   Added to our avian sightings were butterflies, including: a fantastic male Clouded Yellow, Small Heath, Small White, Common Blue and Green-veined White.

old Little Tern Colony site

Not wishing to bring such a lovely day to an early close, we decided to stop off at Capel Fleet Viewpoint on the way home.   Malcolm did ask at one stage "why do we only go there in the winter?"   We soon found out!   It is a winter speciality, we only managed six cygnets, Crow, Woodpigeon and the jewel of five Kestrels in the air at once.

Onward to Harty Ferry, and here we found Robin, Blackbird, Linnet, Little Egret, Buzzard, Redshank, Curlew, Oystercatcher, Herring Gull, Ringed Plover, Magpie, Goldfinch, more Kestrel, Pied Wagtail feeding young, Jackdaw, Marsh Harrier and Grey Heron.

We also added Common Darter, Meadow Brown and Migrant Hawker to our day list.

Scrummy Damsons

On the way off the island we caught up with several groups of Red-legged Partridge, presumably they had recently been released for a shoot.

We found a few damson trees in one of the hedgerows, and tried a couple - scrummy, if a little under-ripe