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West Beach,Shoeburyness


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This morning as i had no work again i decided to go to West beach shoeburyness for a touch of sea watching,here is what i saw

20-25mph winds from the south.Overcast 6-7c

Yellow legged gull

Glaucous Gull,Black headed gulls,Greater,lesser great black back gulls,Herring gulls

Grey plover,dunlin,flock of approx 5-6'000 knot which were spirraling in the sky for about 25-30 minutes and then seemed to follow me to two tree island where the appeared about 2 hours alter but in a larger number

oystercatcher,turnstone,redshank

 

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What rossis gull?

 

Don't make me jealous - was it a kittiwake? (Check out the juvenile kittiwake and compare it to a rossis)

 

UM / Tinky - this is guesswork on my part as you did not say if it was high tide or whatever.

 

The tides at Two Tree seem to have a mind of their own - it can appear to be high tide at Southend, yet still half a mile of mud at Two Tree - I have yet to work out how the tides work at Two Tree.

 

But could the knot have been following the tide? You can sometimes see thousands of knot at Two Tree, usually swirling up over the mud at Canvey - incredibly spectacular.

 

If you then get the dunlin doing their formation flying in the foreground, it gets even better.

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don't worry about the rossis gull i was winding her up,i told her that it was born there and eats their ice cream and she believed me

PS,when we was at two tree it was high tide,they were definatly knot and they were swirling up around canvey,there were also a small flock of dunlin which came from canvey over to two tree

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Now I know what you mean - you meant the ice cream eating Rossi at Rossi, the ring billed Rossi - Next time you go to see Rossi at Rossis, if it is low tide, look slightly south east towards the first mud bank - you should be able to see up to 14 seals, though usually it is between four and nine.

 

Also you often get meds alongside Rossi at Rossis.

 

Then look anywhere on the mud, and you may locate egrets - most I have found is 14 - also good for curlew and redshank.

 

Not easy to count them, but I would say up to eight thousand knot at Two Tree at high tide - look south over the river at Canvey - also look across the river for herds (thanks Bob) of dunlin and ringed plover. Check out the salt marsh for curlew - can be over a thousand there, but very hard to see until they take off. Nice rats on the parking area as well. Teal in the margins, also once got a red breated merganser, also a merlin, also rock pipit - carry on towards the lagoon, for the avocet - up to fifty. Hard to say how many egrets - most I found was over one hundred near to the cockle sheds. Thousands of brent, with the occasional black brant (all you have to do is to find it).

 

And check out this one - http://applerow.co.uk/default.asp - there are some very good shots of Rossi - also good shots of caspians, if you can pick them out (I cannot always decide which one it is).

 

If high tide, you often get herds (thanks Bob) of turnstone and sanderling running around almost at your feet.

 

Make sure you gat a parking ticket, otherwise the wardens will give you a real one.

 

 

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i estimated between 10-12'000 knot,there were thousands and a realy impressive flock.The most avocets i have had on the lagoon is 34 two years ago.

The nearest red brest merganser i have had is on the stour estuary last year but in all honesty until a couple of years ago i only really went to estuaries/sea when i was on holiday or maybe a couple of times a year so thats probably why.I am starting to broaden my horizon as far as birding goes although this saturday i am going on a "twitch" to get the white crowned sparrow and also to look for buntings in norfolk among other things.

 

 

I always get good counts of dunlin,redshank and curlew at two tree though

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looked at the shot of the caspian,i think its the bird in the middle,where you can only see part of the body and the whole of the head.If not i think its the bird on the left,3rd one up but i am not too good with gulls and am only going by a picture i saw about a year ago of the rainham bird,if i remember rightly it wass sort of white with marbled grey on the body iff that makes any sense but gulls are confusing because of the different plumage at different times of their lives.I think it takes years for someone to be completely confident of gull ID and even then there is always something that comes up and confuses you!!!

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UM - there is a very good book called Gulls of Europe Asia and North America - it's by Olsson and Larsson and is £45.

 

There are two versions of it - the first one was recalled as it contained some errors, and the second one has a drawing of a herring gull and a Thayer's gull on the cover.

 

It is an amazing book - it covers all plumages and all winters.

 

But I still cannot identify the caspian gulls in the picture in question. I think it is the one right in the centre of the picture and also the one down and two the right - you can only see the head and part of the body.

 

Steve Arlow is brilliant with gulls, but I wish he would caption his multi-bird pictures. He assumes that everyone has the same knowledge as he does. His pictures are invariably magnificent.

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UM - I have had another look - I think it is the one right in the centre - one gull only, not two caspians.

 

If you have the book, then check out plates 446 and 448.

 

Reading the narrative on the SOC, it tends to suggest that the two caspians were there at different times of the day, hence only one in the picture.

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