29th August Morning spent in Gunners Park which proved difficult with the strong North West wind. Still managed to root out a Redstart, 5 Spotted Flycatchers, a Lesser Whitethroat, a few Whitethroats, Willow Warblers and Blackcaps with a nice Kingfisher around the old Pond however pick of the bunch went to the Merlin that shot past heading south.
By the time I reached Wallasea Island Wetlands the wind was right up and it was rather unpleasant out on the seawall, really don't like birding in the wind. I had to go all the way to the far east end of the seawall before I finally managed to find two Curlew Sandpipers on the rising tide. Only a handful of other waders present and nothing of real note.
28th August Up and out early this morning but after 40 minutes of looking at northing from Canvey Point I went in search of the Cattle Egret at the north end of Hole Haven Creek. It was however elsewhere and I had to settle for a couple of Whinchats. As it appeared a little quiet I went home to continue to lay paving slabs in the garden and I fought off the urge to drop everything and rush off to Vange Marsh when a juvenile Red-necked Phalarope was found.
I saw this bird later in the afternoon/early evening and a real cracker it was to. There was also a Little Stint here, three Little Ringed Plovers, one of the Spoonbills, three Spotted Redshanks and a host of the other waders plus a superb end to end rainbow, magic.
27th August An excellent after work visit to Gunners Park with Griggsy produced a very good haul of birds. One of the Tree Pipits was seen briefly before we had a seawatch where things got much better. I initially had a very distant skua which was soon lost however was soon replaced by a juvenile Long-tailed Skua and a dark phase Arctic Skua which showed much better. This soon improved when a Pomerine Skua came in and we had all three flying up river together. A little later I picked up three Black Terns and a female Marsh Harrier whilst a couple of more Arctic Skuas went up river. This is pretty good but not as impressive as the large numbers of skua's seen off Canvey Island today, not to mention the Sabine's Gulls.
Around the bushes a Spotted Flycatcher was found by the old batteries and a very nice Pied Flycatcher was in the bushes just to the north of the reserve. Whilst watched two Wheatears in the reserve an adult Little Gull flew downriver above the seawall.
After a further short seawatch we headed back to the cars where two Tree Pipits were seen, one well perched up in a tree. Excellent stuff.
22nd August I had to abandon the building work in the garden just before 2pm as a juvenile Red-backed Shrike was found at Vange Marsh RSPB reserve. After a rapid drive the bird was showing well but wasn't always that close, indeed often it would perch obscured or low down behind reeds though I did manage some reasonable record shots of it.
The three Spoonbills were also seen again on the flood.
20th August Tried for the two Wood Sandpipers at West Canvey Marshes RSPB reserve after work but found that had moved to the reservoir where they were rather distant. They did fly to the favoured flood by the Dog Walking loop but again they were further away than I would have liked, I was not able to get any pictures of them due to the distance. They did however keep up the tren of seeing a good bird every time I've visited the reserve.
From the middle hide overlooking the reservoir there were two Ruff, 5+ Green Sandpipers, three Black-tailed Godwits, a Common Sandpiper and a Snipe; the water level is looking good.
14th August Had a good day today with some fine local birds. I started off with some gulling but there were far less numbers present this time round with only six Yellow-legged Gulls seen and no Meds or Caspians. With the pager reporting now three Spoonbills at Vange Marsh it would be a shame to drive past and not stop in. There were two adults and a juvenile feeding in the marsh for the whole duration I was there. The marsh was looking very good with plenty of waders present though still a few species missing, such as Ruff. There were seven Greenshank, 8+ Green Sandpipers, the Wood Sandpiper, a Common Sandpiper, four Spotted Redshanks, a Dunlin, 20+ Black-tailed Godwits whilst a Water Rail fed along the far edge and a Hobby hunted overhead.
After getting drenched I returned to the car and picked up Griggsy and drove to Wakering Stairs where I immediately picked up the Osprey flying out towards the deep water channel. It eventually caught a fish and landed on one of the posts off Shoebury East Beach. We had a distant skua species and a Great Skua flew over the seawall whilst we were there. After a couple of hours headed back via Rossi who was showing just to the west of the Ice Cream Parlour adding another quality bird to the day.
8th August Its been a bit busy in the garden with the building work so birding and anything else really has lapsed though yesterday I managed a gulling day out with Neil and we were successful in finding four Caspian Gulls and a number of Yellow-legged Gulls in the west of the county.
Despite my early morning yesterday I was out at the moth trap at 4.30am this morning and I added at least five new moths to the garden list, this years garden list stands at 170 species so 200 may be achievable though I missed out on the early part of the spring and summer.
Following the refinding of Rossi back at Westcliff yesterday by John I was there at 8.20am and there he was dutifully standing on the pavement. He's now back for his 12th season, marvalous. Also here 12 MedGulls including three juveniles.