Nightingales in Essex 2018

Not only did the Birmingham Bourn Brook and River Rea Kingfisher go missing in Spring 2018 but so did the Essex Stanford Warren Kingfisher pair.
I saw them both one week in the usual spot at the back of the fishing lakes and then nothing. No more regular Kingfisher.
So this gave me the chance to turn my attention to Nightingales.
I had read there are many Nightingales at EWT Fingringhoe so planned a visit there.
The same week as my planned visit I heard my first Nightingale at Stanford Wharf RSPB.
It was funny as the dog walker I am friends with had told me there were Nightingales at Stanford Wharf. I didn't know though if he was pulling my leg.
He was not though as I saw him on a Monday evening in early May and he said he'd heard Nightingales. So I said prove it and he showed me where one was calling along the small brook, around the corner from the Stanford Wharf lake, before the newt pond. The area is know as RSPB Stanford Wharf. There is a display board opposite.
The Nightingale sang from the Hawthorn hedge scrub area along the side of the grass next to the brook.
I then read there were Nightingales at EWT Wat Tyler in Pitsea, Basildon so visited there. Sure enough I heard two Nightingales singing at both ends of the creek that runs down the side of the park. They were in the Hawthorn bushes on the other side of the creek.
I then made the visit to EWT Fingringhoe and Nightingales were singing everywhere. I could hear them from the car park. Then before the evening guided tour I took a quick walk round and heard more then five singing. On the actual guided tour we heard more than ten singing. They would sing opposite each other as we walked around. The tour guide stated they had more than 40 singing males on the site. It was a magical evening what with all the Nightingales but also a Little Grebe with chicks, a Marsh Harrier and a Barn Owl.
Then back at Stanford Wharf there was the regular Nightingale before the Newt pond, then another along the creek, on the opposite side to the Thurrock Thameside visitor centre by Mucking Sluice and one evening, one by the Thurrock Thameside NP entrance gate. Funny enough whilst I stood listening to it sing, a Kingfisher flew past.
I didn't get a photo but I did get a recording of it singing;
https://clyp.it/jyo1ejwk
Other TTNP birds I saw were a Marsh Harrier, Kestrel, Barn owl and a few Cuckoo's. Great!