A day on the Thames

Had a wait and return job to Egham today,just a mile or so from the Thames so i decided to take the bins & camera and head down to the capitals river in leafy Berkshire.Firstly,the people in Berkshire are not as friendly as those in Essex,fact.You say hello to someone while walking in the tranquil Essex countryside and unless they are deaf they usually say hello back.You say hello to someone in leafy tranquil Berkshire and they look at you like you are from another planet.....And when did Windsor become full of drunks,Crackheads and feral youths?? Thought good old liz lived there with her corgis in tow,today it seemed full of drunks swigging Special Brew standing on the banks of the thames looking threatening.

Then we had around 50 chinese tourists,feeding the ducks while the ducks looked on with some despair,probably wondering if they were heading onto the menu at the Windsor bamboo house Restaurant for tonight,pancakes et al.Then to top it off,a pair of Mandarin Ducks burst onto the scene causing howels of delight from the Chinese,i bet they thought they were on the banks of the Yangtze for a brief moment,bless!!!

Had a couple of Grey Wagtail on the bank,along with plenty of Cormorants,Swans,Canada geese,Great Crested grebes etc etc  
I went to Staines Reservoir after in what was a pointless trip as all the birds were way off the walkway and i didn't have my scope so i buggered off after a while for lunch,i could however make out 2 little grebe,gulls,cormorants,tufted ducks and pochards,everything else was dots dots dots.
I went back to the Thames after lunch,a bit nearer to Egham this time,not much happening,had Great Crested Grebes,4 Egyptian geese,swans,canadas and a couple of raptors in the guise of Red Kite and Common Buzzard,both of which were distant,hence poor photos

I got back to Upminster around 4.30pm,just enough time for a quick walk around Broadfield Farm,too late to take any photos but i did manage 4 Lesser Redpolls in a bush,Green Woodpecker,Jays,tits and a few finches,well worth a quick visit and i will be back for a mamooth dawn to dusk session tomorrow!!!

Hmmmmm lovely Goldcrests

Managed a little trip to Broadfield Farm today,before i went to work
Saw the following,see photos for details,sorry for being short,am tired,got to go to bed and got to get up for work early.Probably wont get a chance to get to the farm tomorrow,am in surrey working,well waiting around from 9-3pm so may get to visit some of the lovely heathland down that way lol

Yellowhammers are us.

Went to Broadfield Farm early this morning after dropping Jan and Rich off at Stansted,despite plenty of searching i couldn't locate the Bullfinches i have seen on recent mornings,having to make do with the odd call deep within the scrub.
Haven't got time to write too much tonight,going out to work in a minute so heres a brief summary:-

Woodland area,near Pike Lane :- c20 Redpoll,6 Siskin,at least 8 Green Woodpeckers,2 Buzzards over,3 Kestrel,10 Greenfinch,goldfinches,3 Wrens,goldcrest

Great Barn :- 8 Yellowhammer,6 Greenfinch,c50 Redwing,8 Fieldfare,plenty of Skylarks,goldfinches,Little Egret

Scrape:- Grey Wagtail,Pied Wagtail,Green Sandpiper

Bumped into a nice couple first thing but i am sorry to say we couldn't locate the Bullfinch despite about 45 minutes of trying,also bumped into Ron Colson and daggsy made a surprise appearance.
On the way out of Broadfield Farm i had a massive Buzzard,very pale individual which could of been mistaken for Rough Legged buzzard (one was reported close by yesterday),although i have seen this individual before and know its Common (buteo buteo as they say in rome lol)

As you can see,there are two pictures that are bird related but not of birds.One is of that famous species the Great Grey Ron Colson,looking for a Green Sandpiper in the distance at the scrape at Broadfield Farm.The other is of a group of dirty twitchers waiting for the Dark Eyed Junco in hampshire a few weeks ago,true to form,i am the one who is looking the opposite way from everyone else,was looking at Crossbills,twitchers don't look at normal Crossbills with the same amount of enthusiasim that i do!!!!!! page 9 of Birdwatch magazine this month,notoriorty at last!!!

Five Alive

Just when you think Arsenal are at the depths of despair,they pull out a performance to remind everyone that Spurs are and always will be forever in Arsenals Shadow.In our worst season since the Premier League started and Spurs' best season for around 30 years,we smashed the vile plonkers 5-2,coming from 2-0 down.
As much as my passion for Arsenal has been tested and has somewhat dissapeared to the extent that i don't go anymore because of the rising prices,foreign cheating players(which the English and WELSH are actually better at nowadays) and Sky ruling the roost,my hatred of Tottenham remains at pretty much what it has been throughout my life,i just hate them.
In yesterdays post i forgot to add that AFC Hornchurch beat Kingstonian 2-0 away to remain 2nd,5 points behind pesky Billericay but with two games in hand,Lowestoft lost and are now 5 points behind us with a game in hand,which now means that if we win all our remaining game,we cannot be caught.I have just told the missus this and been told that "i thought you was talking to someone who cared".

Anyway,onto the most important thing at the moment,family aside,birds.
Got up at 4.30 this morning to take Foxy,dalby and their crew Skiing,snowboarding,whatever they are doing.
I got back around 6.30am to find Broadfield Farm open but it was still pretty dark and within ten minutes it was obvious that i needed a bit more sleep so off i buggered,back to bed for another couple of hours.
I got back down there at 9am,not the liveliest of mornings but i still managed 3 Bullfinch.2 Males and a Female,pics below.Other birds were a Cormorant,the odd Siskin,goldfinch and 6 Greenfinch were nice.Jays,Magpies and Green Woodpeckers were their usual noisy self as were the Skylarks who were in full voice and spreading all over the Site now.A Great Spotted Woodpecker didn't oblige with a photo opportunity,nor did the 2 Wren who wizzed in front of me.
I was a bit lax this morning as from about 9.30am my phone didn't stop ringing.
About 11am i made it to the Visitor Centre,for you guessed it,Bacon Sandwich.
Daggsy was on site and just as i ordered my Pot of tea and Bacon Sandwich and sat down with a copy of the Mail on Sunday (only paper left and i only read the sport section),he rings me to say he had stacked it and lost his keys,after a few minutes he found them but i thought i would go and find him to see if he was ok,he was,but later on he told me he was "all stiff" which was quite worrying as he was walking behind me at the time.
On the Scrape we had 2 Snipe,bad photos,1 Grey Wagtail,1 skylark on the banck,4 Pied Wagtail and 3 Linnets.Am hoping that we get some other birds on the Scrape but it really needs a clean up soon as there is far too much rubbish on there and the worse it gets the longer it will take to clear up.
I stopped birding around 1.30pm and watched the Arsenal v Spurs game in the car on my phone,nearly turned off when we went 2 down but glad i carried on watching it.
Then off to Gatwick after the game to pick up a customer of mine,only birds of note were 2 Buzzards over the M25/A22 Junction,giving much better views than any that have come over Thames Chase Recently,who knows,maybe tomorrow will give me a decent shot or two.