Posting on the fly #1; Funton and the rules/regulations

Funton messes. Just over two months ago the paint pots arrived.

So why are they still there?

Stuff from the lay-by gets cleared almost as soon as someone reports it.Why not stuff on the saltings?

And why does rubbish in the mud tend to stay in the mud?

The Queen's highway

Fly-tipping on highways gets cleared by the local authorities. They have responsibilities for highways. Now you and I might think we know what a highway is, but our understanding often falls way short. A highway is more than a road; a footpath is a highway. Any"way over which all members of the public have the right to pass and repass without hindrance" is also a highway. Unadopted lay-bys, where vehicles have been driven over for years without hindrance, where the owner has allowed the behaviour, can then become part of the highways system. On a narrow road such as Raspberry Hill Lane, such unadopted lay-bys are a godsend on workdays when lorries take the rat-run. So, even though the freehold deeds might say the ownership is with X, sadly X cannot fence off and return to nature (one conservation site I was involved with some years back wanted to do just that when they purchased a parcel of land- soon put straight).

This is why large-scale tipping in the lay-bys along the lane get cleared. The Council have a good response rate, and will prosecute.


Beyond the highway?
Put simply, the freeholder has responsibility. The freeholders all along both sides of that road are painfully aware. Speak to the farmers. They'll tell you they'd love to just move the cak three metres back onto the Highway, but they can't- because they'd then be the ones who are fly-tipping. And the saltings are in private ownership.

If you study the rubbish, you'll soon see new stuff arrives every week. Several of the landowners will pick up general rubbish straight away- that's easy to deal with. More specialist stuff? Sometimes that'll hang around longer, for a full lorryload (more cost effective, especially where disposal is highly technical; white goods, tyres). Unless you look carefully, you may not see the turnover. Some of the paint pots have gone since September.

There's a lot more to it, of course, and there are lots more details here:
Government guidelines
Local Authority responsibilities
Flytipping association

At least the really bad old days of Funton are long behind us. Cars like this one get picked up pretty quickly.

Back in the good ol' days? Long-term parking was the norm. (From 'The Thames transformed', Harrison and Grant, 1976)

Do as I do; pick some of it up to help (and check for addresses!). Think of it as a one minute beach clean. Without the beach. Taking rubbish off the saltings themselves is another matter; the signs make sure we have been informed we do not have permission to leave the lay-bys (though some local birders do sadly still choose to do so). No need; if you walk between lay-bys there's always enough rubbish in the bushes to fill a carrier or two.

Funton Creek, on the rise

Sunday and an afternoon sat up on Tiptree Hill, watching distant Greenshanks.

Well, I'd actually started down the bottom of Tiptree Hill, watching distant Greenshanks. Just before the three metre mark, most were scattered in ones and twos around Funton Creek through onto Funton Reach. Followed the tide out. A handful were over on Bedlams Bottom. These were making their way back towards the sea wall and their roost site by the old barges.

By the time I was up Tiptree Hill, most of the Funton Creek birds had moved to the head of the creek itself (in blue on map above), or were spread out feeding on the flats just to the west. The last couple of Reach birds soon flew in to join them.

As the tide made, most continued to feed, several took time out to bathe and a couple dropped off to sleep. The creek head is neither easily viewable nor approachable from the road, and it takes a lot to flush birds from there. A few Redshank joined them for a while, but they were conspicuous by their absence today; something had scared a large number out of Funton and over to Halstow. The Oystercatcher roost numbers remain unseasonably low around the Shade (close to the seaplane operational area).

As the tide covered, the Greenshank moved a short distance east onto the saltings. If the hay had been cut, I might have suspected they would have made for the regular Barksore roost spot, but water levels, like the surrounding grass, remain high; this combination puts paid to any such gathering at present. These birds were going to try to stick it out on the saltings. Over the other side of Funton two walkers heading out on the Chetney stretch of the Saxon Shoreway put the smaller roost to flight, which made straight over the water for the main group.

As I packed up to leave, two flocks of Redshanks, each of around 50, came in fast and low, from the west over Barksore. Birds from Halstow or Twinney Creek, had something spooked them? 'Missing' birds making back for a favoured roost? They took the small number of roosting Redshank up from the saltings and away with them, but the Greenshank simply froze and waited the flight out. They clearly felt they could get away with things.

Greenshank. Easy to map. Rest of my notebook, with all the waders moving around Slayhills, Greenborough, Millfordhope and Chetney Hill, a tad messier. But there's the fun.

Ruling the roost

Though the covering tide at Funton was at a nice lazy start time of just before nine, it had to be remembered that this meant Thursday and Friday would have seen 'morning flights' perfect for the guns. Sure enough, when I arrived no wildfowlers- but very few wildfowl on show either. One of the commercial shoots was in full swing, and their gunfire was making the remaining duck wary.

The waders had clearly been shuffled as well. There is a well-used, well-known beach at the mouth of Chetney Canal that holds a large roost of Oystercatchers. For the past week or so they had been pushed off by the Knot and had moved further up the Chetney peninsula, but with the tides now getting higher some of the Oycs were claiming squatters' rights on the beach. They had settled not in a 'lump' as usual, but instead spread out along the small beach. The Knot, which had favoured feeding in Halstow/Twinney Creeks of late, started to arrive in small groups to head straight for the Canal roost, but were now not prepared to settle among the Oystercatchers. Instead they seemed to hover overhead for a short while before setting off on a circuit of the Funton complex as if to make another choice. The eastern saltings were already full of Dunlin so, for the first time in quite a while, they had to put down alongside the Avocet under the Barksore seawall. Unable to crowd together, they were strung out, from the concrete barges all the way to The Shade.

I felt I was being dumb. Why had those Knot not headed for their other preffered roost? What was I missing? You know, the roost site just near where the Greenborough wildfowlers sometimes operate... ah, that'll be it then. Perhaps the gunners have been out in force.

The gunners have to make the most of the tides and the weather. Many syndicates work to a small limited number of 'days' per month, so will cancel a day if the weather is bad and then work hard to reschedule if they can find a gap; overshoot an area and the quarry wise up. they might also bring forward a shoot date near the end of season if weather is better.

The tides had been good. The weather had been good. And the Oystercatchers had taken their chance and got their roost back.

- - - - -

Many types of quarry have their seasons finish on the 31st January. Snipe, Woodcock, Golden Plover, Moorhen and Coot. And wildfowl- but only in part. 'Inland' shooting certainly ends on the 31st, but shooting below the high water mark continues up until February 20th.

The local game shoots finish February 1st, so much of the onshore disturbance disappears and the birds will be quick to take advantage of safer feeding/roosting areas along the seawalls or on pools (guns will still be out from time to time for rabbit and the like).

I remain unsure as to how many local birders appreciate Saturday is the busy day for game shoots- Sunday shooting is not allowed by law, so to cut down on disturbance, weekday shooting rarely happens. Why weekend birders often hear so much gunfire if out on a Saturday.

Some English counties/county boroughs do not allow Sunday wildfowling, but Kent is not one of them. (Bans are in place in Cornwall, Devon, Doncaster, Great Yarmouth County Borough, Isle of Ely, Leeds County Borough, Norfolk, Somerset, and the North and West Ridings of Yorkshire.) Again, just as there are more birders about at a weekend, so are there more wildfowlers. A quick-tot up, this wildfowling season I've made just over 30 visits to Funton for the rising tide, and just twice have I been out the same time as the wildfowlers. Before I really studied the Medway, when I was a weekend birder, I continually worried about overshooting and disturbance, now I've come to understand a little more just how used to switching roosts/flights these birds are.

What's in a name?

Sometimes the sheer scale of the estuary puts people off counting. It doesn't really help when the names for certain areas get muddled Over the years, birders have noted their counts from along the Funton road as being at either 'Funton', 'Funton Creek' or 'Bedlams Bottom'. Does this matter?

Well, if you want to understand why the birds use certain parts of Funton more than others then, yes, it does. On a morning like today, it helped me break the mudflats down into more easily countable units, and I can make a stab at why the birds are where they are.

The Funton road runs for some 1.8 km alongside the hypotenuse of this large triangle of flats. There is little chance of the muddy habitat being uniform throughout, and the birds are attracted to certain parts at different times of the year.

Maritime and Coastguard agency approved maps tend to use many more place names than the Ordnance Survey maps will quote, for good reason. Not so freely available for use on blogs as Google Earth, I've roughed out the main areas on the picture below

Starting from the west, in yellow is Funton Creek. A supply of fresh water. Why so many waders and wildfowl are found on the curve of the outlet when uncovered. The flats here are some of the last good feeding areas to go under on the rising tide.

In green, Funton Reach. It helps to know that a reach is a straight stretch of river. Tide flows fast in such channels and often reaches have steeper banks than elsewhere. This is why many of the duck hole up in Funton Reach at this time of year,usually along the the southern bank, out of reach (pun intended) of the wildfowlers' guns.

Funton Reach then turns into The Shade (orange). This is the opening joining the Funton complex to Stangate Creek, a major creek in the eastern basin of the estuary, deep, fast-flowing and mainly channeling into/from Twinney and Halstow Creeks. The Shade can be appealing to wildfowl and grebe seeking respite.

To the south and east of Funton Creek is Bedlams Reach (you may know this name from the riding school on the southern side of the road). Why Bedlams? This old creek had not been running with any strength for a few hundred years, and not at all for the past century. The creek has been (and still is) silting up, which is why Bedlams Bottom represents the end of the line for any boat willing to risk the channel (except for the Sheerness lifeboat, which occasionally trains for mudflat rescues here). So Bedlams is a dead creek. Less oxygenated, uncovered for longer periods, there will be a big difference in prey abundance, especially in the 'true' Bedlams Bottom (why on autumn passage few waders feed there, preferring the Funtons).

Bedlams creek from Bedlams Bottom

Each species has it's own story as to why they use certain parts at certain times of year, and I'm certain these stories will be a mainstay of this blog in the future. Just one quick example, from late December onwards, as prey stock becomes exhausted elsewhere, birds waders will start to feed more on Bedlams. But when the first smaller flocks of the annual December Knot influx arrive, they will often settle mainly on Bedlams first for a short while at first as there is less pressure from other species and prey abundance in those other areas is leveling with Bedlams. Once Knot numbers rise they start to use other areas more.

It is of course all a lot more complicated than this! The purpose of explaining the names of the Funton Complex is simply to help people bird these mudflats more easily.

If all those names are too hard to remember, you can always get a little help from the Kent Wildfowlers. They own the roadside saltings here and have divided them by a much simpler straight line method into two shoots, Funton West and Funton East. Hence those big cut-out letters on their signpost by the main lay-by. Just remember, much of the east is pure Bedlam.

A reassembly of Rooks

Dawn on New Year's Day, and a slow saunter looking for Woodpigeon flight lines (many returning to the Medway Towns after being bombed out of their roosts at midnight). I stop to watch the sunrise over Hawes Wood (a busy Woodpigeon roost itself at times, not today) close to the Brent Cottages rookery on the western edge of Upchurch. Veteran nesters have already been reasserting their ownership rights here for several weeks now. 

This 'early activity' is not down to global warming as some would have it; Rooks always stake their claims in the winter months. Perhaps such actions give time for further dispersal by the unsuccessful? Perhaps sorting rank and position in a colony takes time that they can ill-afford in the true breeding season? Whatever the reason, their return to the nests is another promise of Spring.

To start, the birds mainly just pay short visits at first light, but they then start to stay a little longer each day. For this particular gathering, the pasture between rookery and Lower Halstow provides excellent feeding so, even when away from their nests, they are usually very close by now. This morning they were happy to assemble on wires just over the hedge from the main road.

The complex of associated satellites of the Funton rookery are also just as busy now. Last year more of the low trees atop Raspberry Hill were removed. These clumps had only been adopted as satellites after surrounding orchards were grubbed out several years ago now. Suitable nestsites are at a premium. It will be interesting to see if 2016 brings the establishment of a new satellite slightly further out, or if breeding numbers contract. Again, good feeding habitat is plentiful, and the Funton Rooks are catholic feeders, often to be found out on the mudflats searching the algal mats.

Funton

Hopefully these birds will remain a fixture in the years to come.

(If anyone comes across it, there is a lovely old book, "The Life of the Rook", by G.K. Yeates. First published in 1934, it describes their nesting habits in great detail, based on observations made just down the road in East Kent. It carries a lovely dedication to 'The George and Dragon' at Fordwich and all its inmates.)

It all kicks off

Berengrave

23:59, New Year's Eve. I'm standing in Berengrave LNR at the viewpoint over the flooded chalkpit quarry. The odd Magpie and Woodpigeon are giving unsettled calls around me. Fireworks have been going off intermittently for the past five hours, and it is clear quite a few birds have already shifted out from their main roosts over the deeper water to the chalkpit edges. The annual  New Year's celebrations are something that causes a great deal of disturbance to birds, and the 250 or so Magpie and 550-odd Woodpigeon calling the LNR home were about to experience fireworks 'shock and awe'.

00:00. It all kicks off. Woodpigeon start to crash out of the trees around me, hurrying away. In contrast, the magpies go quiet as they pass low over me. Strangely, no sound of passerines. It might be many have moved on the earlier explosions. Their roost numbers have also dropped away in recent years, and so if they do not alarm, you may well miss them. Instead, Lapwing can now be heard overhead, moving inland from the estuary- the annual mass disturbance is now well underway. 

Lower Halstow wharf and church

I've had an interest in this event since the Millenium, when I was witness to a large disturbance over the mouth of the Medway, from Sheerness to Grain, as masses of winter thrushes fled the huge bombardment. Then my years at Rye had proved disturbance flights a given. The large organised display lights up the surrounding marshlands, and I used to record wildfowl fleeing Castle Water heading for the Tillingham valley, with big numbers of passerines, flighting in all directions.

Tonight's big rush was over. I moved down to Motney Hill to try to gauge events there. The flats were pretty much vacant. One or two Teal called, and several lost Dunlin alarmed overhead. A handful of Brent circled the Hill.

Twinney

The waders and wildfowl clearly hadn't enjoyed the experience. I had mused whether they simply head for the main channel where They might feel safer but, then again, several fireworks displays were still in full swing over the Hoo skyline With such a level of disturbance, where would these birds feel safe?

On to Lower Halstow. 01:15. Again, many fewer sounds of life than expected from the creeks, and for a while I was more focused on the squabbling Little Owl with birds on Great Barksore, in the Brickfields and along by Frog Farm all squabbling with each other. Then the call of Dunlin overhead reminded me why I was out. These birds were going inland, high. A distant Grey Heron called from the direction of Ham Green, continuing south and heading off towards Callum Hill.

By the time I reached Funton, the disturbance seemed to be all over. Though the tide was making, little could be picked out. I headed home for rest at 02:00.

Later that day I was pleased to receive a timely retweet linking to a Dutch paper on the subject of fireworks. Clearly there is a lot of real disturbance happening, and the paper hints at a clearly observable level of fatalities. As more birders become aware of this issue, will they start to make the noise? Only time will tell. I take some hope from seeing just nine Chinese lanterns sail over the estuary during my two hours in the field. The message on their dangers seems to be getting through.