Trip reports

Seasalter

Monday, 18 September 2006

We met at the Sportsman pub at 10am. As high tide was to be around 11am, the outward journey in a westerly direction towards Castle Coote would be on a full tide, whilst the return walk would be on a falling tide, which should ensure that the waders would come in and be feeding on the freshly-exposed mud.

We passed dragonflies and butterflies on the grassy banks of the seawall, and heard bearded tits pinging in the reedbeds. There was a continuous flow of swallows and house martins throughout the walk, provoking quite a discussion on why they were heading east along the coast instead of south towards their migration route to Africa. Feeding in the estuary were three species of terns, and beyond them, nearer to the shore of Sheppey, were the first brent geese that most of us had seen this autumn - just two, but they will be joined by many more as the month progresses. Another sign of approaching winter was the sight of a pair of eider, soon to be seen in large rafts on the water along with wigeon and other sea ducks.

By the time we had a coffee break in the late morning, the tide was falling, but a bird that we did not expect to see was a hobby that flew past very close, its prey the many swallows and martins that were still pouring through. The exposed mud was soon occupied by the colony of seals, joined by little egrets, curlews, grey plovers and oystercatchers. Returning to the cars we found wheatear and yellow wagtail.