January 8th
With a fresh to strong NW wind forecast I arrived at Reculver at first light and seawatched for one hour. It was surprisingly quiet and apart from 700 Herring Gulls flying W all I saw was 17 Dark-bellied Brent Geese and 19 Red-throated Divers. The only highlight was a Great Northern Diver flying W. As the bird that was seen during December and the first couple of days of 2019 was found dead on 3rd, this is obviously a new bird in the area.
After this we walked inland and recorded 1 Chiffchaff, 1 Kestrel, 1 Goldcrest, 1 Great Crested Grebe, 1 Grey Heron, 1 Common Buzzard, 18 Chaffinches and 11 Goldfinches.
Richard Collins also did a seawatch between 1100 and 1210 and recorded 21 Red-throated Divers, 1 Great Crested Grebe, 1 Gannet and 1 Knot W (96th).