12th February: Spent all day over at Paglesham Lagoon trying to photograph the drake Smew which had been found there yesterday. It was a bugger of a bird to get anywhere near and I spent many hours sat in the snow on the edge of the lagoon freezing the proverbiables. Eventually managed some okay shots but it was a grey day and the lagoon was basically grey and white so photographing a black, grey and white bird was not without its challenges.
Also a flock of six redhead Smew dropped in whilst I was there and spent the day commuting from there to River Roach, at least one immature drake was amongst these birds.
Plenty of other wildfowl were around the lagoon with a count of 51 Pintail being good for here whilst birds of prey were represented by female Marsh Harrier, a Peregrine and three Short-eared Owls along the seawall.
Chilly.
10&11th February: A concerted effort on the tip was rewarded with 4 Caspian Gulls, a very brief 1st winter Iceland Gull, a smattering of Mediterranean and Yellow-legged Gulls and refinding one of the adult Ring-billed Gulls. Cold but good, definately worth the shivering in -8.
Also had a couple of performing Water Rails in front of the Wat Tyler Country Park hide. Also good to see locally with Pitsea perhaps being the local stronghold.
4th February: Another cold day out with the gulls and again the improvement continues. With Neil today I found yet another, different to Thursdays, Ring-billed Gull. This bird however didn't linger long enough to have its photo taken but at least Neil saw it.
We tallied a total of 4 Caspian Gulls including a cracking adult and then finished off with a very confiding second-winter Iceland Gull which stayed around the Landrover for nearly an hour. Superb bird.
I then finished off the day with the Jack Snipe on Southchurch Park East, my first local Jack in many years.
All in all a good day
2nd February: Some success today at the tip with an increases in gulls in general with a new Ring-billed Gull found early on as well as second-winter Caspian Gull and then it went quite for the rest of the day. Still not bad though in finding my 6th Ring-billed Gull.