September 17th
After sitting at Reculver Towers for an hour yesterday afternoon in pouring rain and seeing very little we arrived there again at first light this morning in the hope that the NW wind would produce a better result. In the event after a slow start we managed to see a good range of species in the four and a half hours we were there. Virtually all birds we counted were flying W and included 12 Arctic Skuas, 116 Teal, 137 Wigeon, 38 Dark-bellied Brent Geese, 16 Great Skuas, 61 Gannets, 22 Pintail, 1 Knot, 5 Golden Plovers, 13 Common Terns,  11 Dunlin, 1 Sanderling, 1 Snipe, 1 immature Long-tailed Skua (174th), 6 Swallows, 2 Turnstone, 21 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, 1 Bar-tailed Godwit, 1 Manx Shearwater E (175th), 2 Arctic Terns (176th), 1 summer plumaged Red-throated Diver, 1 Fulmar E and 1 Sandwich Tern E.

Dark-bellied Brent Geese

Wigeon

Whilst doing the National Beach Clean at Minnis Bay today Terry Wilson saw 20 Sanderling, 34 Turnstone, 5 Sandwich Terns, 5 Bar-tailed Godwits and 4 Ringed Plovers.
This afternoon with heavy showers still arriving off the sea we visited Minnis Bay where we saw 8 Gannets, 4 Sandwich Terns, 3 Common Scoter, 2 Guillemots E, 1 Great Skua E and 8 Turnstone.
On our way home we stopped off at Chamber's Wall and walked to Coldharbour in unpleasant conditions but managed to see a travelling band of tits and warblers consisting of 11 Blue Tits, 2 Great Tits, 6 Blackcaps, 5 Chiffchaffs, 1 Lesser Whitethroat and 8 Long-tailed Tits. Other birds seen included 4 Gadwall, 10 Yellow Wagtails, 4 Sand Martins, 30 Swallows, 1 Little Egret, 1 Cetti's Warbler and 1 Wigeon.