At high tide at Shellness, which usually falls in the middle few hours of the day, a peregrine often runs in to try to take a dunlin or ringed plover. The start is marked by the sudden rush away of the dunlin flock. The oystercatchers gathered on the ness and curlews in the saltmarsh all…
Tag: Ringed plover
Sandwich Terns at Shellness
A big spring tide on a warm afternoon is a good time to watch the waders, gulls and terns gather on the shore. There is a regular post-breeding congregation of Sandwich terns and their raucous calls fill the blustery air. The terns fly up and down the shoreline and out into the bay sometimes returning…
Plovers and catchers
Shellness is a remote and remarkable spit of cockle shells at the east end of the Isle of Sheppey. It is the tip of a vast expanse of saltmarshes and dark brown mud that form a large part of the Swale National Nature Reserve. The shell spit is continually moulded by the tide and currently…