** Saturday 11th September. Isle Of Sheppey.**

On Saturday 11th September, I spent a few hours on the Isle Of Sheppey with Ian. We went to the Harty Ferry Inn car park first.The first birds we noticed was Little Egrets, they was all over the place, We did a count, and a conservative total seen was 64, there was probably more that we couldn't see. The other species of birds around was:
Curlew(7),
Herring Gull,
B/H/Gull,
G/B/B/Gull,
Swallow(11),
Large flocks of Grey Plover(many still in breeding breeding plumage), Golden Plover, Dunlin, and Knot, Lapwing,
Oystercatcher(5),
Starling,
Cormorant(4),
Shelduck(9),
G/C/Grebe(1),
Great Spotted Woodpecker(1),
Marsh Harrier(female),
C/Crow(4),
There ws also 18 Common Seal on Horse Sands.
From here to to the main road the other bird species seen was:
Marsh Harrier(4, 2juv, 1m,1f),
Linnet,
Mute Swan,
Starling,
Kestrel(2m),
C/Crow,
Magpie,
Corn Bunting(2),
Coot,
Wood Pigeon,
Pheasant, Lapwing,
Red Legged Partridge,
Oystercatcher,
Our next stop off was Elmley RSPB Reserve. There was a few more birds than last time on the way to the car park, the best sighting was 13 Grey Partridge, they was all young birds, apart from 1 adult. A normal sighting of these birds is about 3 or 4, I have never seen a covey of that many before, they must have had a good breeding year.Other species seen:
C/Crow,
Starling,
Little Egret,
Swallow,
Mute Swan,
Grey Heron,
Herring Gull,
B/H/Gull,
L/B/B/Gull,
Lapwing,
Curlew,
Moorhen,
Curlew,
Stock Dove,
Dabchick.
Once at the car park the next place I looked for birds was behind the  toilet block, and as usual I looked for the Little Owls first, and I wasn't disappointed, There was one sitting in virtually the same place as it was the last time I was here. The other birds down by, and around the scrape area was:
Dabchick,
Stock Dove,
Willow Warbler,
Wood Pigeon,
Green Sandpiper(2),
Moorhen, Coot,
Wigeon,
Teal,
Pheasant,
Pied Wagtail,
Yellow Wagtail,
Curlew.
From here we intended to go to just one hide, so we went to the South Fleet Hide. Many of the usual species was seen, I will list them at the bottom, but the best birds seen was a juvenile Merlin, It did exactly what you would expect one to do, sitting on mud mounds, flying low and fast hunting for food, they are a great little Falcon.Then there was a Whinchat sitting on a fence post.
The other species seen was:
Curlew,
Avocet,
Lapwing,
Greenshank(2)
Green Sandpiper(2)
Common Sandpiper(1),
Bar Tailed Godwit(4),
Black Tailed Godwit,
Dunlin,
Oystercatcher,
Starling,
Sand Martin,
Swallow,
Meadow Pipit,
Blackbird,
H/Sparrow,
Shelduck,
Shoveler,
Teal,
Mallard,
Dabchick,
Coot,
Moorhen,
B/H/Gull,
G/B/B/Gull,
Herring Gull,
Common Gull,
Marsh Harrier,
Kestrel,
Greylag Geese,
Canada Geese,
Common Tern,
Then there was one final bird that was seen, and that was a Wheatear that kept flying up the track in front of the car, it didn't seen to have the sense to fly off to the side.

My 'Bird Of The Day is ** juvenile Merlin.**