To Stodmarsh

Whilst in Kent for my February break I took a trip northwards to Stodmarsh,
a little spot of wildness that I first visited many moons ago with Charlie Benson,
Jonathan Wright and others in my youth. It made a definate contribution to my
love for occasional birdwatching expeditions.


When I first visited it was alive with wintering ducks, and had recently become
a place for Cetti's warblers to inhabit in their colonisation of the UK from northern France.
Here I heard and saw snipe "drumming" for the first time, there were reed buntings,
and bearded tits, sedge and reed warblers......and marsh harriers!!!
All very exciting.



Today it was very much quieter than times I recalled, but no less wonderful as a Kentish wild place.





There were a few ducks....teal, widgeon, tufted duck, mallard, shoveler.
There was a big flurrying flock of lapwing that flew up from a field and swirled about
for a time......I wondered were the predator was but saw nothing obvious.
On the lake, as the sun set, I watched great crested grebe and a cormorant fishing.



And did I espie the lesser spotted Nature Writer of Note Simon Barnes,
he of recently read and much enjoyed "How to be Wild"??

As the daylight faded, mist began to spread up the Stour valley from seawards....and drifting

across the reed beds, in search of a roost for the night came two marsh harriers, as of yore!

But time for me to leave Stodmarsh again to the mists of time and memory....

all very refreshing!!

A Wild time I had of it.