Hi Everyone, I am Stefon, dying of Lung Cancer but still managing outdoor walks, Feel our site would be improved with a few more positive experiences. Find many of the blogs so sad.
So here we go, never done a blog before. Oare Marshes near Faversham in Kent. My little walk is around about a 20 Acre area of wetland and reed beds.
Tiny car park lucky to squeeze into it, next to a magical Artesian well. This is water flowing naturally up from the chalk beds below as a result of pressure from water entering the chalklands towards London. Its been tested by the council and found to be more pure than what comes out of our taps because not only is it bug free but also has no chemical additives like Chlorine etc..its natures wine.
Then up onto the embankment, this separates the Swale, in effect the sea, from invading the marshland, across the Swale is the Isle of Sheppy. If you have got good enough Binocs you will see Seals basking on this remote end of Sheppy. Also the odd Marsh Harrier on patrol, quite why they do not come over to Oare I do not know. On the Oare side you have large grass/reed beds the palest possible yellow at this time of year. Seed heads hanging over in a graceful droop, they stir and move with smallest breeze, a watery wave appears to cross the beds as the breeze blows through. The beds are full of chirrups and song, mainly Reed Buntings, the size of a sparrow with a barred tail and a flight that goes in a series of small swoops as they go about their busy lives.
A breather at the RSPB lookout hut and then down the side of the marsh by the creek. Its high tide and a couple of yachts are returning under power following the buoyed channel. Low tide and its impassable as a dried out Mud channel.
Over the weir that regulates the level in the marshes, need another breather on the bench seat provided by Kent Wild life, look towards the weir and a flash of blue..by the time you say "Kingfisher!!" its too late, he has gone, so fast and small. You really need to sit in a hide near a diving spot and be very, very patient.
And theres an Egret, perhaps 18 inches high, all white with a head plume of feathers, 20 years ago a cause of great excitement but now an all the year round resident of the marshes. Had to think why the knees bend backwards thought maybe its to prevent shadow going ahead of his body when looking for fish? maybe? any thoughts anyone
Breath back so onwards, a cabbage white looking butterfly but different, Brown wing tips and brown spots, look that up later at home on the internet and find its a Bergers clouded yellow, the first I have seen. Into the next hide for another breather and a chance to look at the waders . Various small waders, the first Cormorants of this year standing on the pebble islands with black scruffy wings out stretched to the breeze. A large box shaped duck, twice the size of a mallard, mainly white with bold brown flashes down the sides of its body, look it up on the RSPB picture board shows it to be a Sheldrake, another first for me. So off we go again, onto the home straight to the car park. And past the most impressive cattle in kent, A herd of Long Horned Highland cattle that roam the marsh. Handsome and seemingly gentle but I would not cross them, the horns perhaps 30 inches tip to tip, rubbing up against the barbed wire fence for a scratch. Coarse brown hair like the coconut mats we had in the school gym when I was a lad. Dare to give one a scratch between the wire strands, immediately the head turns and a large brown eye bloodshot with pink stares at me and so I back off..quickly. Halfway down the road and there's a Heron in the reeds, senses our interest and lazily takes off, white above and black under wings with head and neck folded back into an impossible Z shape, slow wing beats take him in a lazy circle around us and then a gliding descent into an area shielded from our prying gaze by reeds. And so back to the well and the car park, it used to take me 30 minutes... its more like an hour now, but perhaps slower is better.
I hope you have enjoyed my walk , please say so if you did and perhaps I will share another one with you.
Tread Gently and live for the day.
Stefon
