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There is a lot of activity at Elmley Marshes at the moment. The drive down to the car park is fantastic with close views of displaying Lapwing and Redshanks wandering closely along the track. I can confidently say you are very likely to see at least one stunning Yellow Wagtail and if you are sharp eyed...

Compared to some of the glorious winter weather we've experienced recently, today wasn't too inspirational, but the team took the opportunity to get out "in the field" anyway. A quick check first of the Elmley livestock: all the cattle have now gone until the spring, with only the sheep...

Anticipation is mounting for the impending arrival of a benevolent elf from Lapland. But as far as I'm concerned, he's been beaten to the UK by a number of his fellow compatriots! RSPB are now managing a number of fields on the Harty Marshes at the east end of the Isle of Sheppey. We have acquired...

Fingers crossed, the Elmley/RSPB website saga could soon be rectified. It seems that the mobile phone connection we use for our computer system at Kingshill Farm has been routing requests to access the website to a different address & so the operation "times out" before the mistake is realised...

The last couple of days of wall-to-wall sunshine could almost convince you that spring has sprung, although I've been in North Kent long enough to know that winter can often have a sneaky sting in the tail. Whatever, Monday & Tuesday have been glorious - lapwing are displaying (one of our volunteers...

The forecasters got it right today - lousy they said & lousy it was. Still, more signs of the impending arrival of spring. Not just the odd skylark in song (even today) or the displaying lapwing (definitely NOT today!), but the increasing numbers of that most subtle of ducks, the gadwall. Still...

After yesterdays beautiful, almost spring-like day, with wall-to-wall sunshine, singing skylarks & the first tentative signs of lapwing display, things were sadly back to normal today. Dull, dull, dull. Still the gloom was brightened briefly at lunchtime when i nipped down to check pumps/sheep etc...

Well, they've been a while coming, but finally today they arrived! Out this afternoon in beautiful sunshine to check the livestock. The grazier & his vet had been in y/day to see how many of his cows were pregnant and we were pleased to learn that they all were, which is quite a rare occurence...

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...

Returning to work yesterday was somewhat difficult (to say the least) after a week away in the French Alps. Everyone gets the post-holiday back-to-work blues, but a day spent back at Elmley reminded me why I love working in conservation. Admittedly, half my day was spent in the office, clearing...