Abberton/Cley/Titchwell/Weston/Chew

Getting serious

After last weekend's debacle I had suddenly begun thinking that I might screw up my crusade for this year.  So armed with a few days holiday it was off to finish the thing off once and for all.  And it might have worked with a bit of planning, some planning, planning and some luck.  Nearly a thousand miles later and I came up somewhat short of my target.  Still a showy Wheatear at Abberton,

distant White-rumps at Cley,

the last of the trinity of truly special "smart" birds - a Hoopoe at Weston-super-Mare

and, at bloody last, I caught up with a Ring-necked Duck at Chew made the "not quite making it" somewhat easier to take.

Took more pictures in the last four days than in my time in Shetland, so I'll need another week off just to process them.  Here then is just a little spoiler.

Indecision

Wasted opportunities this weekend, should have gone Scilly, but work wouldn't allow it.  Should have then chosen Norfolk, but with the trains buggered I baulked at even Greater Anglia's generous offer of £18 return to Sheringham with a bus ride through the Suffolk countryside thrown in.  A 2 hr trip that would therefore take nearer 4 hours.  Should have gone for it, and probably done fairly well.  Little Auks littering the place, possible Waxwings littering those places not littered by auks, and any available space filled with possible Sabs Gull, migrant warblers and a White Rumped Sandpiper.  I stayed on patch, but with meaningful birding all but dried up by 10:00 AM I could have still made the coast, but I lingered, grinding it out till Jonno suggested the Girling for Long-tailed Duck and a couple of Whoopers.  Dipped the duck but got the swans, in a thoroughly miserable experience at the top of Mansfield Park in the driving rain and biting cold.  He had also contemplated the Desert Wheatear at Worthing, only for that to skip during the night.

Sunday and patch duties done I mused about Rainham, as I hadn't been there for an age.  Sunday though it's easier to get anywhere rather than Rainham, so I chose anywhere and ended up on Southend Pier.  Had I really thought that there would be Little Auk swimming through the struts, nah not really, but I had to go somewhere.

I got to the end of the rusty and rotten wood pier to find; not a lot!  A patch of Turnstone covered a ramp and a few Med Gulls. They have a new coffee shop near the life boat station; birding with a coffee it might catch on.  A flock of scoters skidded across the estuary preferring the Kent side, and a (presumably) Great Northern Diver flew down river, and that was about it.  Since they don't allow smoking anymore I took this as an omen to give up.

I'd walk down the promenade to Leigh and have a nosey around Two-Tree Island, Southend's second dog-toilet, maybe get some close in waders and geese.  The tide beat me, and somewhat surprisingly waders were thin on the ground; rather a lot of Turnstone though.  The light didn't help with the geese either, but at least I was warm for the first time since I'd left my bed, rather too warm. 

I took the east path on the island, down to the old sewage works, where the Night Heron had hold up last year.  Not a lot about.  I did hear a Green Sandpiper and had a fly over Swallow, and something that looked like a Kingfisher but with a curious blob of white on it's body - so watch out for Pied Kingfisher sightings in the next few days.  Or perhaps not!

Having done the east, I thought the light might hold for me to get to the pools at the west end, maybe find a Barn Owl or something, anything please!.  A few Teal and Wigeon and a couple of Redshank not quite what I had in mind.  Better still news of a Desert Wheatear up the road at Abberton, feck!

Then I thought to check the Egret roost to see if any Cattle Egrets had been overlooked by every member of SOG (Southend Ornithological Group), but it was too dark to make out any subtle differences in the white blobs, so I guess they had been overlooked, or still are.

To Scilly or not too silly that is the question?