Been a few days since my last post,in which time we lost to Canvey Island 4-1,a result that was not on the cards until one of our players was sent off with twenty minutes to go,and us leading 1-0.After that,it went downhill rapidly against what is probably the poorest Canvey Side i have seen in years,certainly since they came back up 4 years ago.Have also done a bit of birding,with my year list underway but the word "bit" should be highlighted as that is about all i have done,more of that later though.
Today,the mighty Hornchurch,still smarting from New years Eves defeat on pig island,took on title Favourites Lowestoft Town,a team with double the playing budget that we have.A seasons best crowd of 450 (around 100 from Lowestoft) Saw the Mighty Hornchurch completely outclass their Suffolk counterparts who won the previous encounter at Lowestoft in August,today we had the upper hand winning 3-0,with goals from Martin Tuohy,who starts a 3 match ban next week for his sending off on New Years Eve,Lewis (better than torres) Smith and Hornchurch's very own Roberto Carlos,Joe Anderson.In truth 3-0 flattered the visitors who were completely outclassed and with Hornchurch having visited all of the top 6 teams away from home must surely now be the title favourites,if not get your money on them as they are a class apart from the rest it would seem.
As for my Birding,I woke up at around 11am on New Years Day after a 5 hour sleep,fresh from working all over Essex in the 8 seater the night before.First stop was over to one of the local patches,Bonnetts Wood,it was very quiet with not much going on at all,plenty of the usual starlings,black head gull,finches,tits etc but nothing out of the ordinary,probably the best two birds were a lovely female Reed Bunting and a Goldcrest but very little else,not even a woodpecker or two.After about an hour i decided to have a drive around the local lanes to see if i could add to the year list but apart from Mallard,tufted duck and pochard on a local pit which i am not supposed to be anywhere near,nothing.
Being only a mile or so from Rainham Marsh RSPB i decided to nip over there for lunch and an afternoons birding,but as soon as i arrived the heavens opened and actually lasted for the next 6 or 7 hours,the small amount of birding i did do there was on the foreshore of the thames and included kestrel,golden plover,redshank to name a few,as soon as the weather got too bad i settled down on a table armed with a sausage roll and a cup of Rainhams finest char and sat down for some Visitor Centre birding where i added Heron and wigeon to my list.After an hour or so in the centre,talking to Howard about our impending trip to Norfolk (YAY!!!) Next Saturday,where he is the expert and i get to drive the expert around and find loads of cool birdies i decided to head to the other end of the reserve just on the off chance of seeing a short eared Owl,this was actually cut short by first,the weather worsening,not really Owl weather although i had seen the Shortie on the 30th December in Rain and secondly a job coming up.
This morning i had a job out of Canary wharf (no canary seen,would be a nice tick lol) and on the way back had a little hunt locally but again nothing to add to the list,no pheasants or Partridge which are usually a given,eventually giving up and heading off to footy around 12.Am off to Gatwick in a minute to pick up a customer,should be in bed by 12.15 and then up and off to Stansted with two of my regulars,Jan and Rich at 5am,may nip over to Stevenage where a Great Grey Shrike has been seen,although it is equally possible that i come back to bed for a couple of hours before heading off to start my Ingrebourne Valley Year List Tomorrow,if i do Bittern and Marsh Harrier will be high on my list of priorities.Happy Birding to you all.Rob
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