April 30th
The last day of April dawned sunny but cool so we walked from Reculver to Coldharbour and back. We saw 1 Pied Wagtail, 38 Mute Swans, 27 Linnets W, 2 Marsh Harriers, 18 Cormorants, 48 Swallows W, 9 Whitethroats, 2 Ringed Plovers, 2 Yellow Wagtails, 2 Shelduck, 11 Oystercatchers, 1 Cuckoo, 2 Redshank, 4 Little Egrets, 2 Dunlin, 1 Gadwall, 7 Mallard, 13 Goldfinches, 2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, 1 House Martin W, 4 Turnstone, 1 Black Redstart, 40 Sand Martins, 6 Reed Warblers, 2 Chiffchaffs, 1 Green Woodpecker, 1 Lesser Whitethroat, 3 Grey Herons, 9 Tufted Ducks, 2 Common Buzzards and 1 Great Spotted Woodpeckers. We also met two birders who had seen a Common Sandpiper (157th) in the Oyster Farm.
Later I saw a Red Kite flying W at Chamber's Wall as I was looking unsuccessfully for the Wryneck (158th) seen by Jim Bloor earlier at Chamber's Wall car park. However Alex and Julian Perry and Derek Smith refound it after lunch and we had extremely good views of this often difficult to see species. We usually see this species in autumn with only eleven out of the thirty six Reculver sightings in spring.

Wryneck - Alex Perry