BOXING DAY WALK

A brown hare paused for a moment beside the Bower Hall seawall on Boxing Day.

The brown hare was joined by another hare, after a brief pause both decided not to come any closer.

The two brown hares had jogged along the inside of the Bower Hall seawall.

One brown hare sat down for a moment before coming a bit closer.

Both brown hares slipped into the hedge and then ran away across the field.

The very high tide on Boxing Day covered the whole saltmarsh opposite Bower Hall leaving the waders with nowhere to rest.

Many of the waders seen were dunlin, redshank, grey plover and black-tailed godwits with one snipe also being flushed off by the rising tide.

Lots of waders roosted along on the seawall on the north side of the Pyefleet at Langenhoehall, near the solar farm. Several curlews stood on the top of the seawall while 500+ dunlin and 200+ redshank roosted on the side. A peregrine was seen standing in a field on the Langenhoe farm. Feeding over the flooded saltmarshes were 200 wigeon, 100 teal, 80+ shelduck and a male pintail, while in the channel opposite Maydays were five red-breasted mergansers.

A male marsh harrier flew over the flooded area of the Bower Hall saltmarsh as it headed west, and a female also passed over a bit later. Two sparrowhawks also hunted low over the flooded saltmarsh at high tide.

The sandy coloured leucistic redshank was very noticeable on the saltmarsh along the Reeveshall seawall on December 26th. The snow bunting was seen along the Reeveshall seawall by Neil Harvey and also Martin Cock in the middle of the day. On Reeveshall 200 lapwing, snipe and a pair of mute swans were seen, while 90 avocets were in the Pyefleet.

A female stonechat was feeding on the side of the seawall near Shop Lane on Boxing Day. Two more were seen on Reeveshall and another single on a fence at Maydays.

Another stonechat was seen by Martin Cock closer to the Oyster Fishery on Boxing Day, also twenty redwing near there.

The sun set behind the Strood fields at the end of Boxing Day with a marsh harrier being seen, 100 golden plover, 30 avocets, 20 ringed plover and forty skylarks of interest.