Storm force Sunday

Went to bed at 4am Sunday Morning,with what can only be described as Storm force winds,at least the gusts were.I woke up 5 hours later with bright sunshine,tired and sort of ready to go birding.
I made my way over to Thurrock Thameside but it was very windy on the coast and watching the River wasn't very easy so i spent most of the first hour watching the bay and nearby bushes through my bins,in the hide was Paul Hawkins,who had a probable Great Northern Diver,Merlin and a Peregrine,i didn't see any of those or only the Peregrine later in the day.
Decent amounts of waders but not as many as usual,no avocets,grey plovers or knot were seen by me and Black tailed godwit numbers seemed low,probably due to the wind.
In the Afternoon i was joined by Dave Cornwell and it was pretty much,much of the same,we walked around the centre looking at Stonechats,Meadow pipits,woodpeckers,kestrels etc before spending the last hour or so loking for Short Eared Owl althouth by the time i left at around 4.30pm there were no Owls to be seen.A bit of a short post tonight as i have just got in from work and am working again tomorrow morning,have a few hours break about 1ish although the weather looks bad again so i doubt i will be doing too much birding tomorrow,the rest of the week looks a bit better,more work on Tuesday and footy Tuesday night away to Canvey Island in the Essex Senior Cup then Wednesday and thursday,weather permitting i have two days off work so at least one of those days will be spent on the coast in Essex somewhere and the other day probably at Thames Chase,anyway,have some more of my usually naff photos!!!