Isle of Sheppey, Part 1.

Two recent trips to the Isle of Sheppey this month, proved quite fruitful for myself and my young son. The both of us had never seen SEO's, Great White Egret, or Hen Harrier before, so with reports/sightings being made of these birds in that area, we set off in the hope of seeing some good birds.
Going back to the 13th of November, this was our first ever visit to the area, and what a cracking day it was(weather wise) too.
Highlights of the day are as follows:

Just before the rough track starts/takes you to Shellness beach, on your right, the fields are full of Brent Geese, these were joined by small groups of Curlew. Ive never seen so many Curlew at once, my son counted 108! (with the use of binoculars) because they were way off in the distance.

I do have some photos of up to 7 Curlews in the one pic, but this was the closest one, and even this one was some distance away.

We did walk to the 1st hide, where we saw the Great White Egret(massive distance though!).

On the way back we also saw at least 6 separate sightings of those SEO's, and a very kind birder let us look through his scope at a female Hen Harrier, which was feeding on the ground.

These shots of the SEO's are heavily cropped, because of the vast distance involved.

One of the Little Egrets flew over.

Reed Buntings were in good numbers.

We then made our way to see some waders on the beach, the tide was in, so I did capture some nice pics of Ringed Plover, Dunlin, Turnstone, Grey Plover, Oystercatcher, and a possible Sanderling?

But I will save those photos for Part 2.

About halfway between the beach and the car park(on our return from the beach) we were treated to a great sight indeed, not one, not two, but three SEO's flew over our heads(one after the other) within minutes of each other. I couldnt really get any decent shots of them, poor light, and the fact that it was just unexpected to see 3 in succession like that. Even back at the car, we saw at least 4 more SEO sightings, whilst we were getting ready to make the trip back home.

So all in all, a very good day was had indeed.

Last shot of the day, and the sun was going down, these two Little Egrets put on a display.

Note-

Just to confirm that on the 19/11/11, my son somehow spotted a Male Goosander on the river at Holborough. He wasnt using binoculars either! I just dont know how the lad does it, but he was right, i took a long range(poor) shot, just before the Goosander took off in the Halling direction.

Another 1st for us too, we saw plenty of females last winter, but this is the first male.