Catch the early birds in comfort

Claire Allfree and family enjoy a sleepover with a difference at Elmley nature reserve

It’s 7.15 on a Saturday morning and I am sitting up in bed looking out across miles of unbroken wetland on the Isle of Sheppey on the north Kent coast. To my right an early mist lingers above the Swale estuary. Just ahead is a small patch of water already full of dabbling teals where, later in the day, I will catch sight of a couple of buzzards hovering above the reed beds. In the far distance a small grey cloud is rolling across the marshes like advancing artillery, the last of this year’s migrating waders. Most people associate birdwatching with at least some element of physical discomfort, but at Elmley National Nature Reserve you can spot lapwings and marsh harriers while wrapped up in a warm, fluffy duvet.

I’m staying in The Ferryman’s, a brand new shepherd’s hut at Elmley, the only National Nature Reserve (NNR) in the country to offer overnight accommodation. In other words, it’s the only NNR where you can go to sleep to the cry of hunting owls and wake up to the squawk of migrating geese. It’s run by Gareth and Georgina Fulton, who took over the land from Georgina’s parents and installed their first Shepherd’s Hut in 2012, complete with a Farrow and Ball colour scheme, fully insulated, silverlarch-clad walls and a swish indoor bathroom with compost loo.

Now the 3,200 acre reserve, which has Site of Special Scientific Interest status, boasts five secluded, family-friendly huts, including The Ferryman’s, named after the old water crossing that used to connect ct Sheppey to the mainland. It comes with th an indoor hammock and terrific c floorto-ceiling views from the king-size ng-size bed. To look out across reed beds and meadow grasses across which cattle roam freely and where e more than 40 bird species make their heir home is like gazing at a piecee of time-lapse photography, with h the industrial landscape of Sheppey in the distance only y adding to the hazy beauty.

Breakfast is sausages and eggs fried, ambitiously, on the outdoortdoor fire pit and eaten in the open n air as the morning sun burns off the he dew (although some huts have stoves,oves, and there is also a communal kitchen chen and home-cooked meals are available ilable on request). A redshank, below; and a lapwing, right, an endangered bird that ‘struts around like an imperial prince’

Suitably fortified, I set off with my partner John and our three-year-old daughter Annie to explore with the help of the binoculars provided inside each hut. The reserve is open every day except Tuesday to the public and already a couple of birdwatchers are lugging equipment down the path to the viewing platform that looks out across the estuary. We, however, have a tour booked with co-owner Gareth, who is going to drive us to one of the four hides:hide the nearest is a mile’s walk from Ferryman, the furthest a good thre three (but for those who like their hik hikes to end with a reward, there i is an extremely decent 16th 16th-century pub, The Ferry Ho House Inn, at the edge of the res reserve). Gareth is an affable chap with the straightstraight-to-the-point attitude of someone wh who used to be in the army. Hugging the seawall, we bounce down the track in his battered old 4x4. As we enter the dim shade of the hide, we can hear the splashy clamour of what sounds like a an almighty argument. “The long-h long-headed gulls love to gobble up avocet ch chicks,” says Gareth as we gaze across a large expanse of water teeming wit with noisy waders. “And the Essentials

Huts at Elmley sleep two adults; some have cots or pull-out beds for one or two young children. Prices for a hut with a cot for one small child start from £105 a night with a minimum two-night stay at weekends. The Saltbox and The Ferryman’s huts, right, both have a pull-out bed for up to two small children and cost from £120 a night, also with a minimum two-night stay at weekends.

There is also a holiday cottage on the reserve sleeping eight, available from £400 for two nights or £800 a week.

Bird tours with Gareth are priced at £45 for two

Barn owls, left, are among more than 40 bird species found at Elmley National Nature Reserve, right