Blogs

Hi everyone, What a difference a bit of sun makes at Saltholme. Today's weather was almost tropical. The sun shone non-stop, and before long, we were pulling off our RSPB fleeces because it was too warm. Honest. Lots of visitors also enjoyed the day, with more than 40 heading up to Haverton to...

Barnacles flighting at dusk, Campfield Marsh Reserve - a digital oil-style painting by John Rogers This winter, as we will all know, started very early with the big freeze-up, snow and ice - the whole deal! The country was in crisis. We thought, "here we are in the middle of an Artic winter,...

You never can tell. Down to the reserve mid-morning to do various pump-related jobs and I paused on the counterwall at Wellmarsh and scanned the Flood. It wasn't an especially high tide today, but the pool in front of the hide was covered in waders. So I detoured briefly to get a count. Half an hour...

Well, there's no denying that we could use a bit of rain, but what a dismal day! The steady rain set in pretty much from the off and then didn't relent all day. Naturally, our cattle grazier had decided to come up today to take off the first lot of cows that will be calving in the next month...

A slightly belated new year's greeting from Elmley. I have been back at the reserve since the 30th, but haven't found the time to update what's been going on here. So here's a quick summary. Natalie found an Egyptian goose by the access track on Boxing Day and up to 4 have been present...

With Nat doing the honours with the livestock today, I took myself off Sheppey (first time since 27th Nov!) to have a look on the Medway estuary. Specifically at Motney Hill RSPB reserve. This often overlooked reserve is situated on the south side of the estuary, near Riverside Country Park by Gillingham...

Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 It was still quite snowy on the reserve when I arrived this morning. There’s been a big thaw over the weekend, thanks to a splash of rain as much as the arctic temperatures lifting...

We were fog-bound yesterday, so my wander around the reserve to check the livestock didn't reveal very much. The poor visibility was compounded by the fact that the water bodies had frozen, meaning that most of the waterfowl have abandoned the reserve for the Swale. I did see at least 500 wigeon...

Yesterday gave us the first real blast of winter at Elmley. No snow, unlike other parts of the country, but leaden skies and a biting northerly wind were a taster for what's to come over the next week or so. Despite the cold, the livestock are still doing a good job maintaining the sward out on the...