Pegwell conundrum

I had an early morning stroll around the Pegwell Bay NNR/Stonelees LNR circuit which has become a rather regular occurrence of late. My main motivation was to beat the crowds and, hopefully, discover a Turtle Dove prior to the arrival of the masses. As it turned out a plan doomed to failure but certainly not a wasted effort. Another addition to the self-found list came in the form of a couple of Greenshanks but there was plenty of other birdlife to keep me entertained.  At least three Cuckoos were singing (?) from various points around the reserves. One in Pegwell, one in Stonelees and another across the River Stour out on Shellness Point. A pair of Avocets remain on the Garage Pool, as do a couple of pairs of Shovellers. The early morning sunshine made it feel very pleasant yet, due to the venue facing East, the angle of the sun made for quite difficult viewing conditions. A lone Grey Plover was out on the exposed mud directly opposite the public hide and odd Lesser Whitethroats were encountered as I made my way around the coastal path. I'd almost reached the gateway into Stonelees when an alarm calling Redshank alerted me to the presence of an owl hunting over the saltmarsh. With only my binos to hand, I struggled to get much plumage detail given the light and distance involved. My gut feeling was that it was a Long-eared Owl, purely because the flight looked quite stiff winged and robotic. Only one thing for it, point the camera in the general direction and hope that 20 million pixels might be of assistance when I got home.

The distance between me and the owl was getting further with every wing flap so I just rattled off as many shots as I could before it disappeared over the hedgerow that lines the raised bank on the Sandwich Bay side of the river. 

The second image seems to support, although certainly not 100% confirm, my suspicion of it being a LEO purely because of the upper wing pattern that's discernable. I've seen Long-eared Owls hunting in the day time, previously, when a pair were feeding young at a nest site along The Little Stour but at much closer range that today's encounter.