March 11th
A beautiful spring morning "came up trumps" when we found a smart male Garganey (126th) in Coldharbour with other ducks. This is the first record of this species on the Marsh since 2012 and our earliest ever beating the previous record of a male and female I saw in Coldharbour on 12th March 1972.

Male Garganey

We also had a record number of 58 Pintail flying E in two groups of 41 and 17.

Pintail

Other birds we saw were 1 Sparrowhawk, 155 Dark-bellied Brent Geese, 5 Chiffchaffs singing at various sites on the Marsh, 2 Stonechats, 14 Turnstone, 5 Shelduck, 11 Ringed Plovers, 19 Mallard, 2 Gadwall, 4 Oystercatchers, 4 Shoveler, 27 Corn Buntings, 5 Teal, 7 Golden Plovers, 4 Lapwings, 45 Grey Plovers, 8 alba Wagtails, 1 Little Egret, 9 Redshank, 18 Carrion Crows, 2 Curlew, 11 Linnets, 1 Rock Pipit, 10 Sanderling, 1 Dunlin and 1 Black Redstart at the car park.