A visit to Elmley

pressld2 · #1 (**permalink**) 20-02-2008, 08:57 PM

Had a lovely visit to the RSPB Elmley Marshes reserve today, in spite of the fact that the mist never really lifted all day long. Clocked up at least 25 species including the short-eared owl at last. Also pintails which I haven't seen there before.

For those of you that don't know the site, to get to the car park you have to drive along a rough track through the marsh for quite some distance (well over a mile, possibly two). Being a marsh, there are a number of bridges to cross. Some of the birds, most notably lapwing and redshank take absolutely no notice of cars so, provided you don't get out, you can get unbelievably close to them. There are signs up inviting you to use your car as a hide but asking you not to get out.

I was doing just this when all the birds suddenly took off. I looked around to see what might have spooked them and saw about five vehicles on the bridge behind me. It was very misty so I couldn't see them clearly but I could see that several people had got out and they had a dog with them. I won't tell you which choice swear words I uttered under my breath as I drove on and over the next small bridge.

After a few hundred yards I spotted a stonechat and stopped to try for some pics (no luck). Before I drove off again I looked back and saw that the vehicles behind had stopped on the next bridge and once again people were out with a dog. This time, however, they were a bit closer and I could see that among the five vehicles were a police van and a police landrover. I stayed where I was until they all drove past me (the two police vehicles and three small, unmarked white vans) and I followed them into the car park.

I was, obviously, wondering what on earth was going on and thinking maybe they'd had a tip-off that a body had been dumped under one of the bridges. But it turned out to be a visit by Prince Edward. The three unmarked vans were the anti-terrorist squad and they were using sniffer dogs to check all the bridges for explosives.

They were, to use a cliche, all over the place like a rash. As I parked up there was a bloke noting down the registration number of every car in the car park and there were landrovers driving along the top of the sea wall (the one that we're not supposed to go on to avoid disturbing the wildlife). As I walked out to the hides I noticed that some of the worst pot-holes had been recently filled in and I wondered if, when I got to Wellmarsh Hide, I'd find it had been painted white. (They say the Queen thinks the world smells like paint 'cause everywhere she goes there's a bloke six feet in front of her with a brush...) Fortunately not.

I was told he was supposed to be arriving by helicopter (of course, it's a nature reserve, how else should one arrive?

) but in the event the mist put paid to that and he came by car. He didn't get to any of the hides and by the time I got back to the car park he'd already left so sadly, he never had the opportunity to meet me.

But hey, our very own Dan Salter has been at Elmley for a while. Are you still there Dan? And did HRH have the honour of meeting a WAB member?

I took over 700 photos and brought 684 of them home with me. As soon as I've deleted 600 of them I'll post some of the better ones up here.

Dave P.

Ukwildlifeo · #2 (**permalink**) 20-02-2008, 09:55 PM

Sounds like you had a good day. I guess the mist stopped you seeing any seals. Ive been Elmnley once. I prefer the lazy mans Elmney (basically how chris packham describes it in 'nature of britain book!): Oare marshes as its easier to get to for me.

Was anyone else worried by a royal visiting a reserve famous for its relative abundance of raptors!? lol

pressld2 · #3 (**permalink**) 20-02-2008, 10:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ukwildlifeo

Was anyone else worried by a royal visiting a reserve famous for its relative abundance of raptors!? lol

LOL! Never even thought about that!

I've just finished the first edit and deleted 450 - another 150 to go! This one should really have been deleted too but it's my only picture of a short-eared owl so it stays for now...

At the time I took it I didn't notice the kestrel! I've had to boost the contrast a long way because of the mist and this has made the image much noisier and done nothing for the sharpness.

Dave P.

Ukwildlifeo · #4 (**permalink**) 20-02-2008, 10:42 PM

Thats not bad for the conditions. Im fairly certain I took a better pintail shot than you did - but then I cheated and took it in the regents park wildfowl collection and they were all scared up to where I was by work going on too

look forward to your other shots

Wild-Woman · #5 (**permalink**) 21-02-2008, 05:09 AM

Hmm Elmley-one of my favourite haunts.

Bwrack · #6 (**permalink**) 21-02-2008, 05:33 PM

Has Elmley now got over the algae problems it had in some of the scrapes/pools ?

pressld2 · #7 (**permalink**) 21-02-2008, 09:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wild-Woman

Hmm Elmley-one of my favourite haunts.

I'm with you there WW. I enjoyed it so much yesterday I went back again today and filled my memory cards all over again!

I will do some serious editing over the next two or three days and then post a few up here. I've had a quick look through at the ones I thought should be good and a few of them were!

So I know that today I got better shots than I've ever got before of curlew, little egret, kestrel and stonechat, while yesterday I got my best ever lapwing shots as well as some good ones of a female pheasant and a robin.

I also saw several species today that I didn't see yesterday taking the total for the two days to well over 30.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bwrack

Has Elmley now got over the algae problems it had in some of the scrapes/pools ?

Dan Salter would be the man to ask. I didn't notice any algae these last two days.

Dave P.