The light was beautiful on an icy cold but sunny January day as thirteen of us assembled in Leysdown on Sea on The Isle of Sheppey.  There were many waders in evidence along the shore with Turnstone, Redshank, Grey Plover, Oystercatcher, and Sanderling busily flying to and fro.  There were Herring Gull, Black Headed Gull, and Common Gull on the water and the posts, and five Great Crested Grebes and some Teal drifted along.  A group of Common Scoter flew in front of us at some distance.

We transferred to the entrance track to the Swale Nature Reserve and in the fields opposite the sea we began to notice the first of many Golden Plover and Marsh Harrier.  There were also huge flocks of distant geese which we thought were Brent Geese.  Reaching the car park for the marshland there were numerous Reed Bunting in the scrub, and a Kestrel hovering over the fields.  A lone Red-Legged Partridge was also spotted.  As the path out to the sea was under frozen water we opted to walk along the higher path at the rear of the marsh area.  After some time we turned back to return to the cars, adding Stonechat to our list along the way.

We then transferred to the RSPB Capel Fleet raptor viewpoint for our picnic lunches, pausing on the way to watch the flock of Corn Bunting by the road.  There were large numbers of swans present in the fields here, with Mute Swan, Bewick’s Swan and Whooper Swan all represented.  Hundreds of Lapwing were in the grass too and all of us marvelled about the sheer density in numbers of Marsh Harrier present, mostly flying but sometimes perched on the ground or in bushes.  A pair of Kestrels flew around the large stack of hay bales.  A Peregrine was briefly seen before flying off and in the nearby reed beds a Water Rail squealed and a Cetti’s Warbler sang explosively.

Some people called it a day at this point and headed for home or the nearby Elmley reserve, leaving a smaller group to head for the Church at Harty Ferry.  A short walk towards the sea here resulted in sightings of around 400 Brent Geese feeding in a field, 30 plus Fieldfare, and hundreds of Chaffinches in the hedgerows.

One final stop was the causeway at the Harty Ferry Inn overlooking the salt marsh to try for a Short Eared Owl (which unfortunately did not oblige.) However, in the process we added Great White Egret, Ringed Plover, Dunlin, Avocet, Shelduck and Wigeon to the walk list for the day.  As the sun set over the sea, we had finished with a total of 52 species seen for the day.