Another Top Weekends Birding

With AFC Hornchurch away at Bath Yesterday,losing 3-1 to continue our recent woeful form i decided to skip the match due to not getting home before 10pm to descend on the Suffolk coast with Howard Vaughan and his army of Boozy Birders,the nickname for our group of mainly non drinkers!!!
We met at Minsmere at 8am where the weather was set fair.This lasted for approximately 30 minutes until the heavens opened and we were treated to a light shower of 2 hours,in which time we hid under bushes and eventually made our way to the Visitor centre for Sausage rolls,coffees,teas,cakes etc etc,although in the brief 30 or so minutes before the rain we had a Garganay,Bullfinch (2) various waders,ducks,crests,finches,thrushes etc
After the rain abeited we headed for the beach where the waves were crashing in and the oncoming Winter was pushed upon us almost instantly,by now though the sun was out and we soon saw 4 Snow Buntings and then a Little Auk flew past us,the buntings were coming to within about 10 feet of us,cracking little birds.
We had a Peregrine behind us over the reserve,red throated diver on the sea,A few Gannets way off,the odd scoter going past.
We walked upto the sluice where there were crests etc in the bushes,just about to leave and a large silverish grey warbler rested on a branch but as soon as we got on it,it went off,Those of us that had seen Barred Warbler before were in no doubt that this was that and when the bird did the same again a couple of others came round to our way of thinking,our suspicions were confirmed when we got back to the centre to find that a Barred Warbler had been seen in the same place on Thursday.A hail storm shortly after put a brief dampner on things but this was soon put out with the arrival of lunch,although on the way back Howard saw a Bittern and could hear Penduline Tits,a species that seems to be ever incresing in this country now,after this we headed to the Island mere hide where we had 2 Spotted redshank,Marsh Harrier,Bewicks Swans.We headed off happy after a great days birding via Eastbridge where we stopped at the usual owl spotting place,2 Barn Owls rewarded us with decent views,we then headed off to the chippy in Martlesham (j's) where the group demolished Fish and chips,i basically went home and slept.
Today (Sunday) i headed off to Thameside Thurrock,a new Essex wildlife trust reserve in Mucking,near Stanford le Hope,Essex on the banks of the River Thames,its a cracking site with a hide on the Bank of the Thames with plenty of bushes showing Stonechats,Finches,Thrushes,even a Green Woodpecker.On the Thames we (me,denis tuck and dave Cornwell) had around 25 Scoters,Hundreds of Teal & Shelduck,wigeon.There were good numbers of Waders,around 60 Avocet,Knot,Dunlin,250 plus Black Tailed Godwits,Grey Plovers,Curlew.A Peregrine Flew High over towards the other side of the Thames,then came back round and flew in front of the hide (excuse the poor photo below),A little Egret hunted on the mud to the left,We went up to the top of the visitor centre where we had a Kestrel and then a Short Eared Owl,possibly 2 hunting over the back.I hope to go back here tomorrow to see what goes upriver on the rising tide etc.Heres Some pictures