August 10th
Matt and I arrived at Reculver at 0600 this morning and spent three hours completing an excellent seawatch. With a fresh to strong northerly wind blowing in frequent squalls most birds were flying E and we counted 103 Gannets, 104 Common Scoters, 198 Common Terns, 101 Sandwich Terns, 1 Balearic Shearwater (175th), 8 Great Skuas W, 7 Oystercatchers, 2 Arctic Skuas (176th), 2 Teal, 1 Whimbrel, 1 adult dark phase Pomarine Skua with spoons flying W close inshore (177th), 4 Kittiwakes, 2 Black Terns, 1 adult Sabine's Gull (178th) flying W then back E, 1 juvenile Yellow-legged Gull, 1 Sooty Shearwater (179th), 1 Grey Plover, 1 Peregrine and 4 Fulmars.
After we left Richard Collins spent from 1010 to 1230 at the Towers and recorded 42 Gannets, 1 Arctic Skua, 10 Common Scoter, 9 Common Terns, 56 Sandwich Terns, 1 Black Tern, 1 Kittiwake and 1 Fulmar.
We returned for another session after lunch but things had quietened down considerably as we only counted 4 Black Terns, 58 Common Terns, 32 Sandwich Terns, 11 Gannets, 29 Common Scoter, 1 Great Skua, 2 Arctic Skuas and 1 Curlew.

Today I also received information about two birds we caught on the Marsh. Firstly a Chiffchaff we ringed at Shuart on 30th September 2010 was controlled by a ringer at Hayseley Manor, Arreton, Isle of Wight 192 km WSW an impressive 2,396 days later.

The second bird was a Sedge Warbler we caught four days ago on 6th August on Reculver Marshes that had been ringed on 25th July 2017 at Leighton Moss, near Silverdale, Lancashire. This bird had travelled 412 km SE.