{"id":6854,"date":"2019-05-17T20:07:08","date_gmt":"2019-05-17T20:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/?p=6854"},"modified":"2019-05-19T13:13:44","modified_gmt":"2019-05-19T13:13:44","slug":"on-the-swale-nnr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/2019\/05\/17\/on-the-swale-nnr\/","title":{"rendered":"On the Swale NNR"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The Swale National Nature Reserve, seen here looking southwest from Shellness, is an extensive area of brackish saltings, formerly saltmarsh (top right), with a shelly beach and rich mudflats (left) beside the Swale, the channel that separates the Isle of Sheppey from mainland Kent. A Second World War blockhouse is in the distance.
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To reach Shellness one has to jolt very slowly along a long, straight, dusty, potholed track, minding out for one’s shock-absorbers. The reward is a magically quiet, spacious realm of … nothingness. Wide mudflats with occasional Shelducks. Wide horizons. Long empty shelly berms above empty windswept beaches. Sea kale. Sea lavender. Sea campion. Sea everything. The song of skylarks over the wind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A Meadow Pipit chooses a good vantage point on the lichen-covered blockhouse. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The cry of a Black-Tailed Godwit over the marsh draws my attention to an elegant medium-sized wader with its long straight bill and agile flight. On the groynes and mudflats are plenty of cheerful Oystercatchers, resting or foraging in little groups. A Little Egret flaps distinctively past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beside the path is a little beach, marked off with a sign, posts and a plastic rope for a “rare” colony of Little Terns. I scan it with binoculars, and am lucky enough to catch one in flight; it lands out on the mudflat, its long wings poking out past its tail, a slender sea-swallow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Three Oystercatchers feeding on the Swale mudflats<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Even as I parked up, some chunky Corn Buntings flitted overhead giving their sharp calls. They were once common in farmland everywhere. A single Swallow flew past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sea Campion<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Along the mudflats occasional Ringed Plovers went their solitary ways. The telescope showed little groups of Shelducks in quite large numbers — perhaps I saw 50 all told. A few Black-Headed and Herring Gulls, and as always a few Starlings (convinced they were waders) visited the marsh. A sudden flock of a hundred Dunlins, wheeling and sweeping together, made me catch my breath, a glimpse of wild beauty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sea Beet, the origin of Spinach Beet, our favourite green leafy vegetable<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Over the marsh, Skylarks kept lifting up for their song-flights, pouring out their astonishing, continuous, rich melody until they were almost invisibly high in the sky. It was impossible not to think of Shelley’s poem To a Skylark<\/em> (“Hail to thee, blithe spirit, bird thou never wert …”), so marvellously immaterial did they seem in the wind and the bright sky. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the little headland, bounded by a muddy, marshy creek, a Redshank flew up, piping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This Yellow Wagtail landed just in front of me at the end of the walk, hawking quietly for flies, mostly on foot.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

As I returned, a Yellow Wagtail, seemingly almost tame, walked unconcernedly along the path in front of me. I ate my picnic sitting below the dyke out of the wind, absorbing the space and sunshine, my heart full of birdsong. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


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To reach Shellness one has to jolt very slowly along a long, straight, dusty, potholed track, minding out for one’s shock-absorbers. The reward is a magically quiet, spacious realm of … nothingness. Wide mudflats with occasional Shelducks. Wide horizons. Long empty shelly berms above empty windswept beaches. Sea kale. Sea lavender. Sea campion. Sea everything. … Continue reading On the Swale NNR<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[88],"tags":[1439,1450,1444,1448,1442,602,1447,527,1438,169,1445,1441,1028,1449,1440,166,1443,1446],"class_list":["post-6854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nature-reserves","tag-beach","tag-black-tailed-godwit","tag-corn-bunting","tag-dunlin","tag-isle-of-sheppey","tag-little-egret","tag-little-tern","tag-meadow-pipit","tag-mudflats","tag-oystercatcher","tag-ringed-plover","tag-saltings","tag-sea-beet","tag-sea-campion","tag-shelly-beach","tag-skylark","tag-swale-nnr","tag-yellow-wagtail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6854"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6884,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6854\/revisions\/6884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}