Raptors & Wood Mice on Sheppey

Female Marsh Harrier.

I made a trip to Capel Fleet on the Isle of Sheppey this afternoon , the weather was very overcast with some pretty heavy showers , i had hoped to connect with some raptors on this superb site for birds of prey , i stopped along the road on a couple of occasions and counted up to 15 Marsh Harriers either perched on posts or quartering over the fields .

There was a large number of Geese in a distant field which mainly consisted of Greylag & Canada Geese however further back in the main flock i counted at least 48 Pink Footed Geese grazing which is probably the largest amount i have seen in Kent.

I then carried onto the Raptor watch point mound and set up my scope in anticipation of what might turn up and was soon rewarded with a fairly close Ringtail Hen Harrier which was one of my target birds , i was joined by a few more birders on the mound and as we were waiting for other raptors to appear a very small Mouse started to run around us even sitting underneath someone's tripod.

Wood Mouse.

Having a chew on someone's shoe.

Wood Mouse.

Thanks to my friends on twitter the mouse has been identified as a Wood Mouse , really cute mouse lol .

As the afternoon light faded i did pick out a Barn Owl which briefly landed in a nearby tree and i was also lucky enough to pick out a single Short Eared Owl which was another target bird , other birds of note were : Corn Bunting , Water Rail ( Heard ) , 25+ Marsh Harriers and 5 + Common Snipe.