Serin,Isla's middle name...

Serin,Isla's middle name...

Saturday 26 January 2013

Upminster Birder: Rainham again

Upminster Birder: Rainham again: 24 hours late but yesterday i made my daily (well this week anyway) pilgrimage to RSPB Rainham.Had a nice walk on the foreshore,sea wall etc...

Rainham again

24 hours late but yesterday i made my daily (well this week anyway) pilgrimage to RSPB Rainham.Had a nice walk on the foreshore,sea wall etc and saw some of the usual pipits,mainly Meadow & Rock but did see 1 water pipit,down by the reedbed overlooking Aveley bay,Aveley Bay,why name it that???? Surely it deserves a better name than Aveley Bay?????? Answers on a postcard or just comment if you can think of something better.
Didn't go birding today,due to a late night work and then football this afternoon where Essex' finest (AFC Hornchurch for all you non believers) drew 1-1 with Tonbridge Angels.Its clear to see from comments on both fans forums that the two teams don't really care much for each other.Apparantly we are all Essex pikeys,and they have named us "birdshit",which was actuallly my nickname as a kid at Junior school,as some other kids thought it sounded like Burgess,while others knew i liked Birds,somehow it stuck for a while,although not too long and by senior school i was called Gooner due to my love for Arsenal,who won 3-2 at Brighton,where little Sister lives.We don't like them,well because they don't like us,i think thats how it works,although i seem to remember them trying to lynch our legendary captain Elliot Styles a few years back,god knows what would of happened if the twenty or so oiks weren't seperated by a fence,perhaps there would be twenty or so less oiks in the world left,you don't mess with Stylesy!!!
Anyway,hoping to get out birding tomorrow,still got a busy night workwise tonight till 4am then up again at 8 for a run to gatwick but free after that.Not sure where to go,may pop over Rainham though for a sausage roll at some point.Off to Norfolk again this week for a couple of days,hoping to get the Dipper at last and some other goodies,anyway,heres some photos of yesterday at Rainham
























Thursday 24 January 2013

Upminster Birder: Sausage Roll 2 Slavonian Grebe 1

Upminster Birder: Sausage Roll 2 Slavonian Grebe 1: By the title of the post,you would of thought the Slavonian Grebe was the loser,far from it. I decided on Rainham again today,partially bec...

Sausage Roll 2 Slavonian Grebe 1

By the title of the post,you would of thought the Slavonian Grebe was the loser,far from it.
I decided on Rainham again today,partially because of the Sausage Rolls,i had 2 today but mainly because i wanted to go back to where my problems with the camera lied yesterday and i am glad i did.
As soon as i walked into the centre i was told there was a Slav Grebe on the Thames.Any normal birder would of been up there like a shot,especially just after high tide but not me,i calmly sat down,demolished a sausage roll,cup of tea and cake and strode upto the sea wall,passing Howard on the way who reliably informed me it was still in Aveley Bay.I got there,got decent shots,got some more and carried on birding the wall area,plenty of pipits,mainly meadow but a few Rocks around.
I went back to the centre in time to grab the last Sausage Roll before going to get some more shots of the "Slav".
A couple of hours later my birding was complete and i have spent the last few hours between jobs,sorting out 1500 photos,which i have sort of done with my dodgy laptop,the results are below.
My camera btw seems a bit better today but not 100%,i gave it a bit of a clean last night