AIRPORT TRANSFERS UPMINSTER

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Yesterday at Broadfield

Had a little trip to Broadfield Farm yesterday,nice sunny day but not too much in the way of birds.
Had a couple of Grey Wagtails,one over the kids playground and another on the scrape,the Green Sandpiper was on the scrape as well.
On the way back to the centre i had 5 siskins,a couple of redpoll and the usual thrushes.
Last night Arsenal beat Reading 5-2,great play from Santa Cazorla.
This morning i had a Barn Owl over the M25 by the M1 junction,then i went home to sleep,just got up and going back to work in a minute,hence the quickness of this post.Bye for now.

Saved by the scrape

Another photo less blog,due to the fact that I have been able to take no fecking photos the last few days,been busy with work,or watching football or having problems with my motor.
Saturday I did a bird walk,as the leader.For the first hour or so it was quite embarrassing as we manged to see around 30 redpolls,2 flyover bullfinch and heard another couple.The walk was to showcase the birds on site but to start with,showcased the lack of birds around,so we decided (pre arranged obviously) to retire for a spot of brekkie to the centre,on coming out gain we headed to the scrape,on the way down there we had these thrush,although the Redwings have stripped the berries,a few remain.
On getting to he scrape,my joy me excitement was paramount as it turned out they had cleared the scrape,giving us great views of the resident Green sandpiper,then a Grey wagtail,a little egret,3 snipe and some Linnets,a Male Sparrowhawk just added to the grat second half and around 20 lomgiled its and a few Goldcrest rounded the walk off nicely,shame only  4 People turned up although for my first walk it wasn't the worst number,o mart Alex's trying to prove me wrong.
My weekend was made better by midday when I went to pick Rumbo up for Xmas,he lives in ibiza and then Hornchurch beat Basingstoke 3-0
Come on you urchins

Waxwings delight

Didn't manage to go birding as such this morning,mainly due to it being frozen when i woke up,which enabled me to stay in bed for a bit longer than expected,then i had to nip down to Southend Airport to pick some people up,luckily for me though i received a call from Howard Vaughan alerting me to the fact that there were now 19 Waxwings at Cosco Lakeside,feeiding on the pyracantha so i picked the missus and nipper up around 11am from Mother and Toddlers and hot footed it down there quickly before we took Isla to see Fake Santa at his Fake grotto in South Ockendon,she seemed to enjoy it,although she was a bit shy.Not sure why we continue to lie to our children about Santa,he isn't real,get over it.....When they are older we tell them to tell the truth while openly lying to them while they are small,makes no sense to me!!!
Anyway,back to the Waxwings,19 sitting in Coscos car park,make for 200 odd photos in a few minutes,my only hope is that a couple came out good,should do as they weren't more than 15 feet away at any given time.Anyway here are some photos,once i have gone through them.
Good luck to Arsenal tonight against Bradford in the Quater final of the carling cup,think they will need it the way they have been playing.
Photos aren't brilliant to be honest

A Quiet week

Haven't really done much in the last week,Hornchurch beat Canvey last Tuesday night,i got drunk,got in at 1am (ish) and lost my phone.Suffered the next day,didn't go birding and have worked ever since.Today was a bit of a quiet day,this afternoon i went to Thames Chase briefly,filled up the feeders,the birds seem to be really taking to them but as i havent been there all week,not sure whats been on them but it looks like tits and finches.Off over there tomorrow and then got the Cadmans over for dinner around 7pm,should be back from Southend airport by then,my one and only job tomorrow.
Will probably take the nipper to see santa at some point tomorrow at his grotto,work depending.
Hornchurch lost on Saturday,got Basingstoke at home this Saturday,after my first ever guided walk of the Broadfield Farm site,looking forward to it but expect some know it all to turn up and make me look stupid,then quickly off to city airport to pick one of my best mates up,rumbo,who is back from Ibiza for christmas.
Ta ta for now

Stop Buzzardtime!

Just a quickie,oo er missus.
My plan on going to Thames Chase all day was thwarted by news of a Long Tailed Duck at Grangewaters lake,about 3 miles from me,so after work this morning,and a cheeky nap i decided to go down there.I arrived in the lane to find it closed due to a dispute amongst the travelling community down there,stopping cars going through,although i wasn't about to ask why,may swerve this site in future,too much aggro imo,nice lake for wintering ducks but i quite value my car,its my livelihood.
I decided to go to Thames Chase after all but didn't actually make it as i was occupied half a mile or so away by a Buzzard,then 2 Buzzards and then a 3rd,not sure if there was a fourth but there seemed to be,never saw more than 3 together although 2 were over one field in the air and another was over another field,i had another one on another field which i thought was a different bird but not 100%.
Would of liked to get better shots but the lanes are tight and you cant always pull over where you want,may try again tomorrow.
Got footy tonight,away at Canvey Island,going out on the lash beforehand so may spout drivel when i get in on here,apologies now fotr any garbage i put on here,Come on Hornchurch,South Essex is ours!

Monday Blues

After a non birding Weekend,i woke up today to find wet weather dominating Upminster.I didnt get up till around 11am as i was working all night,i decided on a visit to Thames Chase,mainly for a sausage or bacon baguette,i ended up having both.I was just intending on going there to watch the feeders as the weather was dire but after eating my breakfast/lunch/brunch the weather starting making a somewhat dramatic recovery,armed with a belly full of meat and bread i decided on a walk to look for Waxwings as i hope we get some on site,didn't see any but did hear one fly over while i was in the woods,couldn't locate it though.
There was a very big flock of Siskin around,numbering 52 and a smaller "flock" of 6,can you call 6 a flock??? when does a group become a flock? I had 3 Redpolls but could hear more in the Alders behind me,although they didn't sound l;ike a big group.Redwing numbers were still good although i didn't really check the whole site,will do that tomorrow when i should be over all day.
I had 3 Bullfinches in total,2 i saw flying and another heard.Fieldfare numbers were low on the site,only saw 3 but had around 50 in the field on Pike Lane before i got on site.Green Woodpeckers were numerous as always with 5 recorded.Goldcrests were about today but couldn't get any shots of them,didn't get any birds of prey today.
I have started a list for the birds sighted on the feeders,situated outside the Cafe in the Visitor Centre,the list isn't that impressive so far but i hope to add a few birds in the next few weeks,so far it reads :-

Greenfinch
Chaffinch
Goldfinch
Magpie
Starling
Long Tailed Tit
Dunnock
Wren
Robin
Blue tit
Great tit
Blackbird

Not the most impressive of lists but its a start,hopefully i won't be the only one to be watching the feeders,but i hope we can add to the list,also add the amount of feeders we have up,but we do need donations of either hanging feeders and food to help us.
Tomorrow i am going to give the site a really good bash,need to get over the other side of the motorway,if i can get through the tunnel (the water in the stream shouldn't be too high then),to see what the thrush numbers are like on that side.Didn't get any decent photos today,or saturday but i am going to show you some of them,including some crap ones of one of the local Buzzards Saturday.

Another boring weekend

This weekend has been a bore,I managed 20 minutes birding in Saturday,due to lack of sleep Friday and heavy traffic in London Saturday.I managed 0 hours birding Sunday,despite not having much work all day,this was because I didn't finish work till 7am Sunday and stayed in bed until 3pm by which ime it was really too late to go out.
This morning,I got up at 5am for a quick run to Southend Airport,getting back before 7am but then spending the next 4 hours in bed as it was tipping it down.It looks a bit better now so am gong for a cheeky little walk over Thames Chase.
Last night I had to take some passengers to Gosfield Hall,between Brainteee and Sudbury for. Wedding.While there I saw a Single Barn Owl perched in a tree,a Tawny Owl was heard and a Little Owl was seen sitting in The road until I moved closer,not a bad finish to the weekend and while it was a bit boring as I also had to miss Hornchurch's away game at Hayes & Yeading,who play at Woking,we won 3-1 to move up to mid table now,getting there.It was a game I wanted to go to as I've always wanted to visit Wokings ground,maybe we can get them in a cup competition soon.
Not sure of my next Away League game,probably Welling over Xmas,the ones before are all looking like no nos due to having non stop work but I will be at Canvey Away tomorrow night in the Essex Senior Cup,where I hope we can break our recent run of bad results at their place.Fancy me old mucker Martin Tuohy to bang a couple in,make amends for his sending off their lat season.
Come on Hornchurch

Berries Everywhere

Went over Thames Chase today,spent the whole day there from dawn to dusk,well not quite dawn as i stopped on the way,close by to look at Two Buzzards in the field,feeding with a carrion crow,something which i suppose could of been rabbit,it was pink anyway,the day ended with another big bird of prey feeding on Rabbit but more of this later.
Thames Chase has berries,thousands of them,England has Waxwings coming in,Thousands of them,end result is that Thames Chase to my annoyance has no Waxwings,but it does have hundreds of Redwings,Fieldfare,Blackbirds and the odd Song Thrush and i managed quite a few decent shots of Redwing today,including one particular bird which didn't mind me getting too close which is strange as they usually dissapear when they catch you in site.
On the Scrape there was the resident Green Sandpiper,i also saw it this afternoon over the other side of the M25 near the Golf Course,i got a half decent shot this morning but it could be so much better if i could actually see the water from the top as its still overgrown,hopefully this weather will kill the weeds off further so we can view the scrape properly.I also had 4 Mallards and a Grey Wagtail on the scrape and 40 flyover Golden Plover.
Didn't see a Kestrel all day which is quite odd for the site as theres usually a couple knocking about.After lunch i made my first visit this winter,inside the woods and around the Alder Trees and found around 20 of each Redpolls and Siskin as well as a Male Bullfinch beforehand near the entry road when i was talking to John,who has kindly donated a very very big bag of Bird seed for our feeders,thanks John,i know you read this,cracking gesture.Talking of the feeders,i did check them this morning,nothing too unusual,a few tits,finches etc so will keep checking.
Back over the woods i had a cracking Female Bullfinch,not sure how good the shots are but it kept going behind twigs making it hard to photo.I had a wander up Pike lane and while doing so,a boy racer in a Vauxhall Corsa,sped by and shouted Wanker at me,800 yards and about 10 minutes later i approached his car,which had smoke bellowing out from the Bonnet and as i walked past,shouted "who's the wanker now",poor little mite looked all embarassed,wanker.
My day finished with a Goshawk,sadly it wasn't a wild bird but a cracking bird all the same,flying around with his master,got a picture of it,not the best,was probably too close and the light was fading,he had blood all over him,think he had just eaten a rabbit,cracking day out.
Reasonably happy with most of the photos,some i am not but my lense keeps playing up,really starting to get on my tits,problems with focussing,think i need to find a few grand from somewhere and get a new Nikon,bosh.
Busy day at work tomorrow from around 7 in the morning,right through till about 5 the next morning,although i do have a few little spaces for sleep and possibly a couple of hours birding.