Avocets in January

On yesterday afternoon's saunter around Motney I'd gone and done something dumb. I'd dropped my gloves. I only noticed when, at dusk whilst chatting with a couple of the locals, I went to put them on ready for the ride home. This morning, no matter I have about five pairs in the house, I would be retracing my steps in a (ultimately fruitless) search. It did mean I was out for the high tide, and being a moderate height it meant the Motney Hill Saltings roost site would not go under. Sure enough, several times I saw two or three clouds of birds rising up. The Avocets were among them.

There are two main groupings on the southern side of the estuary, these Avocets in western part (that is, west of Ham Green), plus the Millfordhope/Stangate/Funton birds in the east. This western group seems to prefer roosting on saltings on the eastern side of Motney Hill, near the mouth of Otterham Creek, using it for a considerable amount of the early part of the winter. There they are hard to count, the only real viewpoint being from a distance from the higher ground above Upchurch graveyard. They will also often be mainly out of sight when feeding along Bartlett Creek.

In January, as overall numbers on the estuary rise, the larger Motney Hill Saltings roost starts to be used more often, providing it is left undisturbed (it is visited by bait diggers and crabbers).

More time is also now needed for feeding. During the first part of the winter, Bartlett and the mouth of Otterham Creek provided enough food, but the Bartlett mudflats go under relatively early, at about the three metre mark, whereas other nearby creeks remain uncovered for about an hour more. Now the Avocets use them more, especially Rainham Creek.

If they feel secure in Rainham Creek, they will feed quite happily up to within a hundred metres or so of Bloors Wharf, but they can and do get put off. If badly disturbed, they may change tactics for several days and instead feed on a mix of Bartlett and the central part of the estuary, along the South Yantlet Creek. This creek flows just north of Nor Marsh and Friars' Saltings (south of Bishop Saltings) and is the flyway for bringing numbers further west to Copperhouse and as far as the Strand.

The birds rarely cross the main Channel to the northern side of the estuary, even though a third flock of Avocet is based around East Hoo Creek and Stoke Ooze.

Southern Medway Estuary- Core areas for 'Motney' Avocets in January
Red- main roosts (rectangles) and feeding area (lines)
Orange- additional regular feeding areas
Yellow- least-preferred regular feeding areas
(Blue- flightlines to the outlying areas)

There will be some interchange with part of the Funton group from time to time. That group's main roost is Funton Creek/Reach (or just behind the seawall on the main pool on Barksore). When spring tides are running, this roost is at it's largest; at other times it may be split between two spots for some/all of the tide, at Funton and at the meeting of Millfordhope and Stangate Creeks.

If the Motney birds have been disturbed badly, they may feed in numbers slightly west of Ham Green on Ham Ooze. The tide covers the Ooze early in the tidal cycle (by the 2.5m mark) and so these birds then have a choice- more often back to Otterham/Motney (usually via a stop-off on Bartlett Spit), or sometimes straight down Millfordhope Creek to join up with Funton's secondary roost.

Funton birds are rarely spooked westwards, as they can swap easily between their two roosts, plus Barksore. They also routinely feed very much closer to their roosts (the Millfordhope birds are those seen distantly along the outer reach of Twinney Creek if observing from Lower Halstow).

Getting an indication of numbers using the southern Medway is possible over the course of one tide. As birds from the Funton complex very rarely move west over a roost period, the Saxon shoreway above Funton will give distant 'scope views down onto the Funton and Millfordhope roosts, plus the Barksore roost pool. A short stop at Upchurch then provides a view of any Otterham roost with, finally, Motney Saltings being best counted distantly from either Bloors, or Horrid Hill, as/when the birds are in the air.

Postscript:
Actually more a 'oh my gosh I forgot the Queenborough birds' middle of the night moment. As with all such attempts, birds will not be neatly compartmentalised. There are always a handful that refuse to be pigeonholed. The Swale, the tidal channel separating the Isle of Sheppey from the mainland, turns north and runs alongside Chetney to meet the Medway at Swale Ness. It is not unusual to find a small number of Avocets at this confluence. The covering tide will usually see these birds head to the Chetney side, to either disappear into Shepherd's Creek or withdraw into the Swale. Answering if these birds roost with the Funton birds is beyond me at the moment (Shepherd's Creek, and any adjacent overland route, are just too distant private areas to study easily from the shorelines. They are for another time.