Filler material.

I've had a particularly stressful couple of days. Without going into details it's involved leaving work in a rush early on Thursday and then spending a lot of time in a hospital (just visiting), a pleasant experience that I expect will continue for a while. In between all this and perhaps because of it I found/made the time for half an hour or so at the Stone Barges this afternoon. It's amazing the effect that just getting outside for a few minutes has.

Post-industrial Essex is an odd type of nice, but it's definitely nice.

No owls, of course, and the pipits resolutely refused to land (is there a way to tell rock from water by call?), but one of the barges was crammed with a mix of redshank, black-tailed godwits, dunlin and a couple of lapwings. As more birds arrived on the tide a small group of dunlin put on a decent show in front of an impressive sunset. So nothing out of the ordinary, but particularly nice after the last couple of days.

This also put in a brief appearance. I'm not as hot on my seal ID as I thought I was - any suggestions? The Girl reckons it's common, as do I, but it was a big old beastie. Anyone who knows seals by bad silhouette pictures, feel free to leave answers on a postcard. Or comments section. I care not.

Update: twitterland agrees. It's a common seal.

Had good numbers of waders at Grays the last couple of days too. Yesterday I counted over 100 redshank, around 20 lapwings and a few dunlin. Today, just as the tide started to rise there were 20-30 each of redshank and lapwings, a few dunlin and a ringed plover. The plover is flat-tick number 60.

Tomorrow, I've tentatively pencilled in a dawn owl spotting sesh at somewhere even scummier than Grays or Rainham. Let's see what, or if, it happens...