Firstly I'd like to thank Magpie Mick who PM'd me some great advice on getting the most from this place
Venue: Elmley Marshes, R.S.P.B Date: 9.05.09
Friday evening [the 8th] Connor and I made plans for our first visit to Elmley, it was agreed I'd get him up at 6.00am and should be at the venue by 7.00. I can never lay in and was up at 4.45am, Connor came down at 5.00
so guess he was a little excited, we were now ready to leave our house at 6 and reached Elmley before 7.00am.
On advice from Mick we entered the site, well the entrance track which is 2 miles long, through the farm buildings and out into the open. The track seems to go on forever but the fields/wetland/marshes on either side are teaming with wildlife, Mick had said that we're allowed to pull over to one side to take pic's but we had to stay in the motor, this we did.
We expected to see some varieties of birds that we hadn't come accross before but we were amazed, the fileds either side were buzzing, there was just so much to see. Both Connor and I were hanging out of the car windows, Connor taking pic's one side me on mine.
There were Egrettes in abundance, the odd Heron, numerous Shanks, Oyster Catchers, Crows, Rabbit's, Hares, Partridge, Pheasant, Lapwing everywhere dancing around in the sky and just above the ground level
, Cattle with Calf, Coots with chicks, Yellow Wagtail [this particular one refused to get out of the road until he'd finished preening]
Connor and myself have this little competion thing going on, he'd created a list/table of birds we'd seen and been able to photograph, each time one of us adds a bird to the list the totals for each automatically changed, and he's been ahead of me since we'd started, today however I intended to catch up.
Connor was desperately trying to get a picture of everything I'd taken one of, but as we're taking pic's from inside the car it wasn't always possible as obviously we were sitting on opposite sides, I have Swifts and Swallows in my list and well what seemed to be were a flock of Swifts almost dive bombing the car, Connor was clicking like mad, he now had pic's of Swifts allbeit through the car windows.
Oops back to the thread
well this track which by the way is suitable for all vehicles just goes on and on, it's fantastic, you just don't know which way to look, it's really hard for the driver as you you've got to pay attention to the road whereas your Son's got more time to get one up on you.
Guess we'd better get to the venue otherwise I'll be here all day, right we've now reached the site carpark, there's several farm buildings around, the odd residential property [guessing wardens/staff] and toilet block. This area again is teaming with birds/wildlife, Connor got his pic of Swallow's as they were everywhere. I think they were nesting in the toilet block but using every other building and cable as somewhere to observe us observing them, along with the Swallow's in this area were Pied/Yellow Wagtail, Starling, Blackbird, Wren and lot's of other birds we didn't recognise [we class these as brown things and ask on here for help].
Connor asked to use the loo before we headed off to the first hide which was some 1 1/2 miles [or kilometres, don't remember], so toilet block here we come. Immediately behind the blocis a wall and a bank with a lake at the bottom, this contained mostly Avocets, the odd Shoveller and numerous Gulls. Connor came out the loo catching me taking pic's of the Avocets, neither of us had ever seen these before so although a little far away clicking commenced.
Right off we headed for the first hide [provisions are made for disabled peeps and they can actually drive to hide 1], as soon as you're away from the buildings you come to a pond on the right, here we found Swan and what we think were sygnets though they looked Penguinesque
Again many pic's were taken here as the abundance of wildlife just blew us away, Connor and I had taken nearly 500 shot's and we weren't anywhere near the first hide
, just so much to take in.
As we continued along the clearly arked out pathway we were clicking left and right, allsorts of small brown birds kept revealing themselves in the reeds and bushes, flocks of Shelduck flew over head
Common Tern, an odd looking Cormorant [thought they were predominently black
]
and many many others.
As you walk along you have the sea defences to your right and fields/wetland to your left, we saw many birds of prey, never in the right place for the good shot but we do have pic's for ID [please] at the end. Several Swan flew over making their honking type sound and splashed down in water not that far way but always behind the reeds so as not to give us the shot, we'll get them next time.
Right hide 1 that's got a name but we've forgot it
, we crept up to the hide as we didn't didn't want to disturb anybody or anything, opened the door and went inside. There was chap in the corner and we greated him and tried really quietly to sort our stuff out, why can't you creep in walking boot's
our monopods clonked when we stood them against the wall, our rucksacks made noises when we put them down, the benches creaked, the window flap hinges sqeaked, we did try so hard to be quiet but the hide floor/walls seem to amplify every sound
the other man collected his things together and left 5 minutes after we got there SORRY
.
Guess we now had the hide to ourselves though wasn't intentional
what a great place to eat your sandwhiches, great view, little bench to put your lunch on and a ledge that you can use to steady you camera, amazing little construction.
As we were now settled and refreshed our noise died down and the wildlife came close again, those long range pictures we took of Avocets behind the toilet block weren't needed, this lake had them and they were close
We also had these sort of Shanks and I thought the first shot was amusing
Oops, just had to delete most of the smilies as to many pic's.
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