Southend Way

November 5th


I fancied a bit of photography so headed down towards Southend, my first port of call was Two Tree Island; the weather was ideal, sunshine for a change.
With a low tide there were hardly any waders out by the hide other than 4 Redshank, good numbers though of Teal and Wigeon with 15 Dark Bellied Brent’s feeding out on the mud of the Creek.
A very distant Common Buzzard was also seen.

From here I decided to go out on the Pier, it has recently changed with a facelift, a very large futuristic building on the end now, not sure as yet what to make of it
With bright weather and the tide coming in slowly I was not expecting much on the Estuary, the highlights being 7 Great Crested Grebes, 2 Kittiwakes and 3 Common Scoter, I had come to try and photograph some of the Mediterranean Gulls.
They are not yet present in numbers it seems, I recorded 7 at the usual staging point, a 1st winter, 2nd winter and 5 adults, however scanning the Estuary produced a number of others moving up and down.

More posy than Sanderlings

Only 1 bird was ringed, the ring just about readable, it will be interesting to see if this is a regular.
In sun and cloud I was experimenting with different settings, I am not a ‘natural’ when it comes to gadgets and gizmos on the camera, ask Jono, but am slowly getting there. The trouble is that I am getting more and more critical of my photos, I know that many are over or under exposed as I either allowed too much or didn’t give it enough. It makes the old brain work though so not a bad thing at my age.
From here I headed back down the pier by train and made for the beach, the tide was more or less in, I was hoping for some Sanderling shots, as before they never disappoint although I couldn’t find a big flock.
Locating a group of around 30 so I decided to just sit on a concrete pillar and wait, in the end the tide pushed them right up to me, being the approachable little chaps that they are, they ignored me and just carried on feeding.

Fired off over 200 shots to end an enjoyable morning.