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: Shellness
Whitstable Seafront
Whitstable seafront lit by the afternoon sun on a high tide in October. This was taken from Shellness on the Isle of Sheppey.
Roosting Waders on a Spring Tide
On a big spring tide at Shellness in North Kent (5.71m on October 19th), the saltmarsh gets one of its few inundations and the curlews that roost at the top end of the saltmarsh eventually get moved on by the slowly rising waters. Grey plovers seek refuge on the groynes and the oystercatchers simply move…
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…
Chasing oystercatchers and sleeping turnstones
Spring is alive when the oystercatchers start chasing rivals off territories. Two birds twist and turn up and down the beach in close formation. This frenzy is in marked contrast to the roosting turnstones and a single knot that quietly sit out the high tide on the wooden groynes. At the peak of the flood,…
Shellness wader roost
The shifting headlands of cockle shells at Shellness provides shelter to a huge saltmarsh and these are some of the wildest and most natural coastal habitats in Kent since there is no sea wall to keep the tidal waters in check. At high tide, the sea almost covers the entire headland but just stops short…
Spoonbills and sandwiches
August 30th At Shellness, the flocks of waders and waterfowl are enjoying the easy pace of the balmy summer. Swallows move along the beach in small flocks; a wheatear forages on the shingle. There is a late summer silence at high tide mainly because the Brent geese have not arrived. Sandwich terns are roosting…
Shellness again…
The tide is forecast high again at 1:30pm and at 10:00am the waters are well up with just a fringe of mud and bays half-filled. The wind is from the north and the blockhouse provides shelter and a view of the shore. The oystercatchers are already neatly regimented on the ness and Brent geese slowly…
The unstoppable sea
On Saturday, the day is warm with a southerly breeze and the oystercatchers gather on their familiar stretch of shoreline at the far end of the ness of shells that gives the place its name. Another spit near the blockhouse is filled with a tight knit flock of grey plover, dunlin and knot. On the…
A birthday card
For Katie on your XXX
Mid winter sun
January is dark and dismal; on rare days the sun shines and the coastline is transformed by a palette of powder blue, dark purples and gravel browns. At Shellness, the sea is calm and the views distant, but the tide is out on the full and the geese, waders and gulls dispersed and quiet.