I nearly had one of those days indoors today.
The weather kept looking like it was going to rain, but not quite. So I thought, 'sod it - I'm not having a weekend in.' I decided to take a risk.
So I headed out to the north Kent marshes, around the Swale estuary.
This is an area known for its wading birds and for birds of prey, particularly marsh harriers (you see loads of them, all of the time). It's one of those places that isn't pretty but it is beautiful.
The weather was changeable, with clouds blowing in. And the wind was strong to start with and only got stronger...
The fields were full of lapwings...
...lots of lapwings...
But the wind was very strong, which was keeping many of the smaller birds on the ground. There were several medium-sized murmurations of starlings, and numerous smaller flocks of dunlins kept barrelling over toward the north sea. The wind had an edge to it as well - there was nothing between where I was and Norway!
There were also a few purple sandpipers as well:
What's so good about the Swale estuary is that it is still an industrial area. There is still a lot of shipping that comes through the Swale into Sheerness docks and the factories and warehouses around the estuary hark back to the area's industrial, working, past. And this has gone nicely hand-in-hand with wildlife preservation.
The day was a walk more than anything else. I set off parallel to the Swale, occasional behind the seawall which gave me some relief from the wind, occasionally putting my head above the parapet to see what I could see.
A pair of marsh harriers could be seen in the distance, but too far away to take a worthwhile picture of. I carried on but the landscape opened up and I had no cover from the wind and then it started to rain. A swig of water, and on I went for another mile or so. But it was hard going in the wind. I got to a point that was a natural terminus, where I could take a circular route back to my car. So that's what I did, hopping my way around the marshes, over gates and across the pasture...
...where a herd of cows had been set out to graze.
And now I'm home, where I'm typing this before sitting down to a dinner of yorkie pud filled with sausages and veg casserole! What a cracking afternoon.
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