Sarah, my dad and I got to southend/westcliffe early on Sunday 8th to try and connect with the regular ring billed gull. There was a fair sized flock opposite Rossi's ice cream bar and so we parked up and started scanning.
There were mostly black headed gulls with commons mixed in and we located just 3 med' gulls, a 2w and an adult pair. The 2w only had one leg, but coped with keeping its balance in the increasing wind, although by now sarah was too cold to stand on the front and so decided to scan the gulls from the warmth of the car.
It was 2 hours or more before the ring billed gull turned up and proceeded to drift up and down the front with the black headed and common gulls. With the sun opposite the direction of the wind the photography options were not good, with the gulls facing into the wind and the sun illuminating their arses i had too pick off my shots and hoped id get some to show for the trip. The ring billed gave good views for us all, with bins and scope, and was a new tick for sarah. It then drifted after a short time further along the shoreline and was lost in the glare of the sun, and after ten or so minutes it had not returned to the same spot, and with the parking ticket run out it was time to head home.
