Trip reports

Shellness

Sunday, 16 November 2008

There was a large turnout for our trip to Shellness. 20 members gathered at the car park on the sea front past Leysdown town eager to find good numbers of interesting shore birds and winter visitors. We set off in dry conditions looking out over a wide expanse of tidal mud with waders and gulls a long way from the sea wall. Through our optics we could see oystercatcher, black tailed godwit, redshank, dunlin, black headed gull and common gull. As we continued towards the Shellness Hamlet we added turnstone, great black backed gull, brent goose and cormorant. On shore there were meadow pipits, pied wagtail and stonechat. Near the hamlet a moorhen emerged from cover, a reed bunting perched in the scrub, house sparrow flew into the bushes and a little egret flew over. Once past the hamlet and back on the beach edge it was noticeable that the tide was racing in. Several waves of oystercatchers were flying to the high tide roost. There were lots of small waders feeding on the shore. They were mostly knot and red shank, but we were delighted to find a purple sandpiper in the midst. It was at this point that we noticed that there was a large dense rain cloud flowing across the marsh towards us. Just as we arrived at the block house a persistent light rain set in that quickly made us wet making viewing difficult. A ring tail hen harrier briefly lifted our spirits. There was a raft of widgeon on the Swale and at the point there were shelduck and a great crested grebe, but we decided to return to the cars as the conditions showed no sign of improving. How often have you found that the rain starts when you are at the furthest point from the car? By the time we returned to the car park we were soaked. By now most people would be happy to set off for home, but we held on to eat our lunch to see if things would improve. Turning into the Harty Ferry Road we noticed that the rain had stopped. We parked on the road as a short eared owl flew over us. A second bird was also quartering nearby. At the raptor watch point we found a very wet looking kestrel that was also pleased that the rain had stopped as it sat on the wires. Marsh harriers were plentiful and the ring tail also put in another appearance. The usual game birds pheasant and red legged partridge were all around. On several occasions we saw large flocks of birds flying over. These were identified as lapwing and golden plover. The short eared owls were busy hunting, frequently diving into the long grasses eventually it came closer and was obviously successful in a strike as it started to feed, shielding the meal with its wings as a grey heron flew over. The kestrel was also interested landing a short distance from the owl who responded with raised ear tufts and aggressive wing posturing. The final bird of the day was a barn owl that circled the fields in front of the watch point.