Elmley Field Trip Report – Sevenoaks RSPB Group

Field trip to Elmley Marshes NNR on Friday 7th November 2014.

8/11/2014: Elmley Marshes NNR.

A Snow Bunting welcomed us to the reserve! Also from the entrance track there were large flocks of Golden Plover, Lapwing, Curlews, and Starlings.

We enjoyed the walk down to the hides in the sunshine, despite a strong southerly wind which will have kept some of the birds down. Banks of heavy, dark rain clouds scudded around us for much of the day so we were lucky to escape with just a brief shower of hail; and in this big landscape we had some wonderful light, including a remarkable double rainbow.

There were thousands of birds, with large numbers of duck (including c. 600 Teal) but far fewer waders than we could have expected at high tide.  Among our 47 species, we had good views of several Little Grebes, a Stonechat, Redshank, a Turnstone, Dunlin, a flock of Ringed Plover, a few Skylarks, and a small flock of Meadow Pipits. With the ducks there was a party of ten Pintail and numbers of Wigeon. For me, one of the most impressive sights was a lone Great Black-backed Gull rest in the fields and looking totally dominant.

There were a few Marsh Harriers, at least one Common Buzzard, and a Kestrel, but our star raptor was a female Merlin (or two) which gave several different views sitting in the grass looking into the wind at us. Several times the ducks were unsettled for no obvious reason, but on one occasion most of the ducks shuffled towards the water’s edge and we saw the Merlin had raised itself upright so it was clearly visible in the grass.