May 5th

On a cool morning after overnight showers Matt walked from Reculver to Plumpudding and I met him on the seawall later. He counted 14 Yellow Wagtails flying W, 41 Swallows flying W, 2 Little Egrets, 6 Turnstones, 1 Dunlin, 10 Cetti's Warblers, 1 Great Crested Grebe, 2 Common Terns, 7 Tufted Duck, 30 Corn Buntings, 6 Stonechats, 1 Kestrel, 2 Marsh Harriers, 1 Short-eared Owl at Cold Harbour, 1 Common Sandpiper, 4 Lesser Black-backed Gulls flying W, 3 Lesser Whitethroats, 1 Grasshopper Warbler, 1 Canada Goose, 2 Greylag Geese, 2 Grey Herons, 1 Chiffchaff, 2 Lapwings, 3 Coot and 1 Lesser Redpoll (162nd), surprisingly our first of the year. He also recorded 1 Whimbrel flying N, 1 Cuckoo, 3 Blackcaps, 1 Willow Warbler, 6 Sand Martins flying W, 1 male Ring Ouzel on the track beside the Wantsum, 1 Sandwich Tern, 5 Sanderling and  3 House Martin flying W.

Male Ring Ouzel - Matt Hindle

This afternoon at 1415 a Black Kite flew NW (163rd) over our garden at Bishopstone. This is the sixth record of this species for the Reculver area and the 145th species I've seen from my garden.