Canvey point and Bowers marsh

With my daily routine now involving school runs, football lessons, ballet classes, swimming lessons and even church visits as well as the day to day care for Suzanne time for birding remains limited but being that these duties are still taking me to Rainham several times a week and with Rainham being just a twenty minute drive to Canvey Island I've managed to grab a few hours to watch the sea at Canvey point. My first visit was in a strong Westerly and didn't deliver much on the sea at all but the Wader count was impressive with hundreds of Oystercatcher, dozens of Curlew and Ringed Plover plus a few Dunlin, Turnstone and singles of Greenshank, Sanderling, Redshank and Black-tailed Godwit along with lot's of Cormorant and Little Egret.

This week saw the time spent with Northerly and north easterlies so the sea was a little more productive.

Plenty of Arctic Skua action and a frustratingly distant view of a "probable/possible" Long-tailed Skua along with missing both LT Skua and Pomarine Skua minutes after I'd left. A Puffin was seen flying at pace down river and a couple of distant Auks moved down river too. Lot's of Terns were seen including plenty of Sandwich. Several Gannets all of which appeared to be this years birds. Two Spoonbill and a Great Egret flew across from Kent as did a Rock Pipit which landed on the foreshore giving me an unexpected year tick. Waders continued to follow the tide and cross the river and included all the above plus Grey Plover and some distant Avocet. Little Gull and Med Gulls were noted and a Red throated Diver was seen drifting from the pier down river. Eight Grey Heron flew from Essex to Kent in one flock and my first Brent Geese of the Autumn were noted with a total of nine birds in three groups. Upto fifty Common Scoter were seen in three groups and Wigeon flew east in good numbers. Nineteen pintail, a few Teal and four Shelduck added to the duck numbers on my visit. Swallows hawked up and down the tide line getting ready to head south too.

The Rock Pipit took my year list to 233 and equaled my worst ever year total so there's some positivity at last. I'm still to tick Long-tailed Skua for Essex but I've come close this year at least with a probable and a couple of very close misses.

Roll on to 28th and I took my grandson to play football in Dagenham after which I took a short detour down to Bowers marsh. The target was a Red-necked Phalarope which showed at distance after a short wait. 25 Spoonbill roosted on one of the islands and the wader count included a single Grey Plover, 2 Green Sandpipers along with numbers of Snipe, Ruff, Blackwit, Lapwing and Avocet. Greylag, Wigeon, Teal, Shoveler, Shelduck, Grey Heron, Bearded Tit, Marsh Harrier, Peregrine, Hobby and Buzzard made up the best of the rest and the Phalarope pushed the year list to 234.

With time being so limited I'm struggling to get the camera out of the bag at the moment but fingers crossed I find a target to point it at sooner rather than later.