Friday and Saturday at Bluehouse Farm

Friday i decided to take a trip to a New Reserve,well new for me.BlueHouse Farm is a site run by the Essex Wildlife Trust in North Fambridge,Essex,between South Woodham Ferrers and Burnham on Crouch,unsurprisingly it is set on the River Crouch,about 6 miles from the actual mouth of the Crouch.
I was really impressed with this site,it has 3 hides,the first,called the New hide which is situated in front of a Scrape which looks impressive but while i was there didnt throw up too much in the way of waders but the pipits,little grebes,egrets,goldfinch,linnets etc seemed to like it but i am sure i was just unlucky,on the Saturday i did have 3 Snipe and a Green Sandpiper but i am sure more will turn up next time.
There are two other hides,which are situated in front of small bodies of water,the 2nd hide looks good for wildfowl and waders,the 3rd hide more for wildfowl but expect anything on all 3 hides.
Marsh Harriers & Buzzards are usually seen,the former quite close to within a few metres if lucky,Buzzards usually seen over the hill in the distance,all the time watch out for Sparrowhawks,kestrels and possible other raptors,looks a very good site for Merlin,peregrine etc.
Apart from the scrapes there are many ditches and fields,of which sheep and cows graze as well as thousands of geese,i notched up around 50 Barnacle geese Saturday.
Along the sea wall for the crouch there are plenty of opportunities for waders with decent size flocks of dunlin,godwits,knot all to be found around high tide.
It takes me around 25-30 minutes from Upminster and is probably the best site around,before you hit the main essex coast,its almost a bit of a small old hall marsh,but without the many creeks,it has the fields for geese etc.I really really enjoyed the site and it truly got my birding mojo back before my trip to Norfolk in the Morning,where i am going for 3/4 days with a small group.Will have more pictures coming then but heres a taste of BlueHouse Farm,got a feeling that with its accessibility on the A127 for me,i may be birding here a lot more frequently than most places.
Oh and Hornchurch continued their yoyo start to the season yesterday with a 3-1 defeat to The Staines Masssive away.
Have some photos,see you all maybe tomorrow for my update of day 1 in Norfolk,although if i don't post,i will be in a pub somewhere supping the local brew.