Elmley NNR is a place that makes me happy. I love the big skies, the surreal backdrop of the Sheppey bridges, the cows that don't care who you are and just wander across the track you're driving on. I like the surprises - the swans walking through the grass, the hares that sit on the path ahead and then rush away if you approach too close, the stoat that you see briefly before it disappears.
There are butterflies and dragonflies in summer and birds all year round, erupting from the reeds and the grass, flying above and away. And water, from puddles, to scrapes, to the estuary. It is marshland - flat and expansive, with grass, wildflowers, mud, reeds and fences and gates where birds can perch. It always seems to reveal something new on every visit at whatever time of year.
It is getting away from the worries of everyday life - absorbed in the moment - waiting, watching, catching a glimpse of something, the eye too slow at times, or deceived. At other times spot on, seeing a bird, capturing it on camera, seeing a scene a new way, or just recognising it as something magical.
I go back time after time - so there will be a lot about Elmley to come. Here are just a few pictures I've taken there.
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