WALK TO ELMLEY MARSHES
My dad and I both went on a long cross-country walk through the surrounding farmland towards Elmley Marshes. I only had a small pair of bins with me and was mainly occupied with recording butterfly and dragonfly species. However,
10+ Yellow Wagtails,
3 Marsh Harriers,
1 Corn Bunting,
1 Whimbrel,
2 Green Sandpipers,
2 Common Sandpipers and
2 Little Egrets were all on show. A few butterflies were also about and included both
Essex Skippers and
1 Peacock. The gullies and drainage ditches were alive with dragonflies, with a total of
8 Black-tailed Skimmers and a stunning
Emperor Dragonfly.
Black-tailed Skimmer
FERRY INN PIER
The Ferry Inn Pier
In the evening, my brother and I both decided to walk down to the pier in hope of locating some crepuscular owls hunting over the marsh. No sooner had we left the house, my brother, Ephraim, pointed out a
Little Owl perched on the corner of the barn, just opposite the house in which we were staying in! seconds later my brother shouts out again, this time a
Barn Owl swooped out of the same barn, crosses the path only metres from where we were stood, not a bad turnout so far! However, the evening didn't get much better as darkness soon fell and it became almost impossible to see any potential predators hunting over the marsh. All the same, we still managed to locate
1 Whimbrel on the marsh.
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