27th September With little happening locally I had a lazy day and ended up at Abberton Reservoir looking at the White-rumped Sandpiper and the host of other waders present, plenty of Ruff and Spotted Redshanks. Apart from these the highlights were a Buzzard and a Grass Snake.
26th September Brighter and calmer conditions todays meant that there wasn't a lot going on at Gunners Park or Wakering Stairs today despite good coverage of both sites. The Clouded Yellows at Gunners Park and a good low flying Buzzard at Wakering Stairs were the respective highlights.
25th September Rossi the Ring-billed Gull again on his favorite lamp post outside the ice cream parlour in the evening showed well during a drive by stop.
19th September Hard fought day today but paid rewards. I started off at the Garrison site and located a fine calling Pied Flycatcher in the tall Horse Chestnut trees behind the old disused tennis courts on the west side of the green. I followed this up by finding another Pied Fly at the mounds by the old batteries near the childrens play area along with a Spotted Flycatcher and a Garden Warbler.
There were a scattering of other migrants around the park however a highlight was the shear numbers of grounded House Martins, there were at least 400-500 in park with many trying to land in the tall populars by the car park or in the spindly tree saplings along the new road, a just stunning spectacle.
A first-year male Redstart was by the old disused compound by the reserve in the exact same place as the first-year female type that was here last week. Now had three Redstarts in the same location in the past few weeks.
At Wakering Stairs I located yet another Redstart, a winter male, and the end of the road to Q battery whilst other highlights were a flyover leucistic adult Black-headed Gull, a calling and showy Cetti's Warbler, a Marsh Harrier, a Wheatear an absolutely moster huge juvenile female Peregrine past Haven Point.
A long day out.
18th September Found a fine Pied Flycatcher at the Stambridge Mills ponds in the evening after work which was twitched successfully by both the Pauls. This was followed by a fly over Hobby as I got back home.
13th September Much slower in Gunners Park this morning with more overcast conditions and colder wind with the Redstart still present and 16 Gannets offshore being the best seen.
A return afternoon seawatch was a bit poor with only three Gannets, four Arctic Skua, a juvenile Kittiwake and a Hobby being the best birds seen.
12th September Early start in Gunners Park till midday produced a few migrants with a Redstart by the compound at the east end of the reserve, three brief Tree Sparrows before they flew high west, a few commoner migrants, such as 30 or so House Martins, and a Clouded Yellow were the otherwise birding highlights. However best of the day was the Weasel which was very inquisitive of the photographer at the east end of the reserve, a real gem.
A sea watch off Canvey Island in the afternoon didn't produce the wanted Sabine Gulls but there were 25 Arctic Skuas, a couple of Little Gulls, a Hobby, a summer plumaged Red-throated Diver and nice flock of 43 Common Scoter.
10th September With a good easterly blowing and good birds being seen off of Canvey I visited the end of Southend Pier after work in the hope of some good birding. It was naff to say the least. One Arctic Skua, one Arctic Tern, a bunch of Common Terns and 50 off MedGulls were the highlights. Certainly not the skua, Sabs Gull and shearwater fest that was hoped for.
Stopped off at Westcliff on the way home where Rossi was again seen on the breakwater.
6th September Spent majority of the day around the Garrison and Gunners Park. It was a slow start at the Garrison bushes with a few Blackcaps being the only birds of note. Proceeded through to Gunners Park where there were clearly a fair selection of migrants present and I hardly left the southern reserve end for the next four hours. Here there was a grand spanking male Redstart, a Spotted Flycatcher and two Whinchat in the reserve whilst here and the buffer zone held 11 Blackcaps, numerous Chiffchaffs, Willow Warblers and Whitethroats and 6 Lesser Whitethroats. Pride of place goes to the two Tree Sparrows that spend five minutes or so in the reserve, first I've seen locally for a long time.
The rest of the park was fairly quiet by mid afternoon though there were two Spotted Flycatchers along the western perimeter, one of which was seen to fly hi to the south east towards the Garrison bushes but was not relocated there later. A fun local day.
5th September Probably the last trip to the tip for the autumn, will resume in November, with Pete. We actually did very well as there were bucket loads of gulls present. It took about an hour or so before Pete finally pulled a huge adult Caspian Gull out the back at the bottom of the mellie. It however didn't linger very long with only a few record shots obtained. It was a fair while before I picked up on an equally brief first-summer Caspian Gull again in the mellie. As the vehicles were very active both these birds were disturbed, lost and not refound. We also had a good run of Yellow-legged Gulls with at least 11 present, mostly adults again but a couple of cracking juveniles and one that had already moulting nearly all its scapulars into first-winter.
A stop at Wat Tyler Country Park later in the afternoon resulted in a spread of waders with a handful of Green Sandpipers, 50+ Black-tailed Godwits and a Spotted Redshank.