Nature Notes

A spectacular 25,800 birds were counted on Monday 13th January around high tide, with over 10,000 wigeon and 8,000 lapwing counted not to mention lots of short eared owls amongst others. This is a snap shot of the birds at Elmley not a definitive list.

Over 21,000 birds were counted around the high tide on Monday 11th November during this month's wetland bird survey across our Reserve, as part of over 40,000 across the Swale as a whole! Well done and thank you to all the volunteer surveyors!

Over 14,000 birds were counted around the high tide on Monday 11th November during this month's wetland bird survey, collated by the British Trust for Ornithology.

Over 8,000 birds were counted around the high tide on Monday 14th November during this month's wetland bird survey. Thank you again to our vlunteer surveyors!

2019 has been a brilliant breeding season for lapwing, redshank and host of other ground nesting birds at Elmley. 336 pairs of lapwing managed to fledge over 429 chicks between April and July, a productivity of 1.27 chicks fledged per brood. An incredible result! The detail below show the full story as recorded by independent surveyors, led by Mr R. Poppe, using the Bolton et al methodology - one count every 3 weeks undertaken five times over the breeding season.