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 these fields through SEEDA (South East England Development Agency) and they have been purchased as compensatory habitat for areas lost to development elsewhere in North Kent. As these fields are adjacent to The Swale NNR & Capel Fleet, wet grassland and reedbed is how we will be managing them. All the fields were arable, but the two that back onto the NNR have had wet features excavated and have been re-seeded as grassland. But it takes a while for a proper wet grassland sward to develop from arable land, and these fields are no exception. The grass grew well, but there was also an awful lot of rank weeds. The whole lot was mown in the late summer to control weed growth, but this also had the effect of shedding a lot of seed and where there is a lot of seed, then it stands to reason that you will get good numbers of seed eating birds. This was the reason that I visited the site on Sunday afternoon. On first sight, there didn't seem to be much around, but the arrival of a hunting short-eared owl changed that! Suddenly the air was full of small birds - the majority were skylarks. There were easily 150 & probably as many as 200 in just 2 fields. There were also a few linnets & reed buntings. But I also heard the sound that I was particularly listening out for - the distinctive "ticky-tic teeew" (as it's often described in old field guides, although in reality it's more a dry trilled "t'rrrrrt") of several Lapland buntings. Last year at Elmley, there were a couple of records of fly-over birds (which I missed), so it was really nice to catch up with these birds. Lapland buntings arrive to winter in the UK in varying numbers, mostly confined to the east coast & the northern isles and they frequent coastal grazing marsh & saltings, where they creep about in an unobtrusive manner feeding on seeds. Most of the time they are difficult to see, but when the flock of seed-eaters was flushed by a passing short-eared owl (of which there were two about), merlin, marsh or hen harrier, then one or two would often drop back in to perch on a thistle or dock stem, before disappearing back into the grass. I reckon that there were easily 10 birds present: flocks of 20-30 were not uncommon on the North Kent Marshes as recently as the 1990's, but this sort of number seem to be a thing of the past these days. The two fields can be viewed by walking along a footpath from Muswell Manor (near Leysdown) & checking either side of the Old Counter Wall.
On the way back to Elmley, I stopped off at the RSPB's Raptor Viewpoint at Capel Fleet for an hour or so before dusk. There were quite a few people there, including a mini-bus full from Essex. Despite the relatively mild conditions recently, a strengthening wind brought temperatures down significantly, but any thoughts of discomfort were forgotten as we were treated to 3 short-eared owls hunting the area immediately adjacent to the mound over the course of about 45 minutes - the birds often coming to within 50m of the observers! Additionally, there was a nice ring-tail hen harrier, a distant barn owl, merlin, the usual cart-load of marsh harriers, a couple of green sandpipers, pushing 1000 golden plover in nearby fields, one grey wagtail, a flock of 50 fieldfares along the hedgerow at Elliott's Farm and the resident flock of corn buntings. But no sign of any of the 4 great white egret's that are currently frequenting the eastern end of Sheppey. But you can't have everything...