But to start my Saturday i got up at 7.30am and headed for the sunshine coast,or the Thames Estuary as most would call it and Two Tree Island,i arrived just after 8am to find the tide coming in but still quite low,after checking the tide table realised i had got my times mixed up as per usual and was an hour behind,no problem really though as i had a couple of hours and knew there was some good birding to be done.
Upon arriving i scanned the water,plenty of gulls,waders,ducks and quite a few little grebes around,14 i counted,much more than usual on a small stretch of water,in the distance a possible Red Throated Diver went past but it was so far out,probably 1/2 a mile that i couldn't possibly say for 100% but 95 only.There were quite a few waders on the deck,mainly Redshank but a single Spotted Redshank was a year tick for me,it was more or less in exactly the same place as i had it last month on my last visit.
There was some spectacular wader action with large numbers of Knot,Grey Plover and dunlin doing lovely ariel displays as well as around 25 Ringed plover way out,many Black tailed godwits and a few Bar tailed completed the wader action.By now the tide was coming in at quite a quick rate,hundreds of Brent geese were on the move as were the cormorants going down the Thames way out.My final birds was the best of all,a lovely Slavonian Grebe,out towards Canvey Point,by now time was getting on and i had to go home for a bit of late brekkie before heading up to Bury St Edmunds for the footy.
About 50 Hornchurch fans made the trip up the M11/A14 or A12/A14 whichever tickles your fancy,my ways quicker anyway as i am great,obviously.
We started the game well,not letting Bury settle before going a goal behind to some shocking defending,until this point we had been in total control but the goal seemed to spur the home fans on who bayed for Red cards at every 50/50 challenge,they got their wish after around 55 minutes as our centre back was harshly sent off for two yellows,mainly because once the Bury (cheating bastards) players saw who the offended player was the majority ran the length of the pitch waving imaginary cards and screaming at the ref,i watched the rest of the match where worse challenges flew in from Bury without yellows being given until we got a penalty 7 minutes from time because of a handball after a blocked shot.We scored,we celebrated and 7 minutes later we thought we had won it as from 5 yards out Michael Spencer was through,beat the keeper but clipped it wide,they went up the other end,scored,the whistle went then the bury players started annoying my Hornchurch players who are saints and dont hurt anyone,nice boys lol,i went home with the hump,after abusing the ref for a couple of minutes,tosser...
Had to be at Gatwick at 1pm on Sunday(today) so got up around 9.30 and headed to Bough beech in Kent,a big reservoir with good numbers of wildfowl,on arriving i scanned the smaller area to the east of the causeway and immediatly saw Snipe in with the Teal,9 to be precise but probably a few more lurking in the reeds,couldn't see too much of the main reservoir but what i could see were around 20 Mandarin ducks,the largest amount i have seen in one area in this country,a few Goosanders,geese,wigeon,teal,14 Cormorants on a platform and plenty of Black headed gulls.Back on the other side i had a Pied Wagtail,small tit flocks were very active and a Heron was on duty,had a small Roe deer run in front of the reservoir on the bank to finish of a nice couple of hours or so.Got home from Gatwick in time to see Tottenham lose to Man city which is always nice and then sat down to watch the first half of Arsenal v Man utd,started well then we went shit before half time with Man Utd taking the lead,didn't watch the 2nd half as i had to go to Heathrow but i heard we played better but lost 2-1.Really not too bothered as we simply arent good enough this year but what worries me is that a great manager like Wenger,who has no doubt been a great manager is not getting support from the board but is too polite to tell the fans that,yes we've won naff all for a few years but we are the only ones in the top 5/6 who have spent 400 million plus quid on a stadium,don't have rich sheiks or rich russians or dodgy yanks putting the club in debt to stay with the jonesys like the others so i have some sympathy with Arsene,i think the clubs fans should remember all that and the doubles,countless finals,champions league final,uefa cup final and constant top 4 finishing and thank our lucky stars we aren't Tottenham lol.
I think Wenger should probably go,but at the end of this season or next and with him standing down,not being forced out by people who are far too impatient just because the dross down the Seven Sisters have had a good season under the managership of someone who is in court in a couple of weeks for evading tax.In Arsene i trust,for the moment anyway!!!
Bough Beech Reservoir:-
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