Nature Notes

Over 14,000 birds were counted around the high tide on Monday 11th November during this month's wetland bird survey, collated by the British Trust for Ornithology.

Over 8,000 birds were counted around the high tide on Monday 14th November during this month's wetland bird survey. Thank you again to our vlunteer surveyors!

2019 has been a brilliant breeding season for lapwing, redshank and host of other ground nesting birds at Elmley. 336 pairs of lapwing managed to fledge over 429 chicks between April and July, a productivity of 1.27 chicks fledged per brood. An incredible result! The detail below show the full story as recorded by independent surveyors, led by Mr R. Poppe, using the Bolton et al methodology - one count every 3 weeks undertaken five times over the breeding season.

A huge number of birds in the Swale this month at 47,000 with over 26,000 at Elmley. Highlights are 7000 lapwing, 5 raptor species, Barn and Short Eared Owls and even a Spotted Redshank.

The Wetland Bird Survey was recorded on 20-21 January 2019 across the Swale Special Protected Area for Birds by volunteers. Elmley NNR has two sectors of the Swale - Elmley Marshes and Spitend Marshes. An incredible 23,000 birds were recorded at Elmley NNR and more than 40,000 on the Swale as a whole.