September 16th

It was significantly cooler this morning with a moderate NW wind blowing as we walked from Chamber's Wall to Coldharbour. We counted 156 Meadow Pipits flying W, 4 Cetti's Warblers, 5 Chiffchaffs, 1 Kestrel, 1 Common Buzzard, 1 Hobby, 4 Corn Buntings, 16 Swallows flying W, 2 Shelduck W, 65 Black-headed Gulls flying W in two groups, 5 Mallard, 3 Coot, 5 Stonechats and 8 Reed Buntings.

Corn Bunting

Dave Smith spent just over three hours at Reculver Towers this morning and counted 11 Pink-footed Geese flying in off the sea (182nd), 2 Shelduck, 19 Wigeon, 1 Teal, 6 Common Scoter, 96 Oystercatchers, 4 Common Gulls, 18 Sandwich Terns E, 5 Gannets, 4 Little Egrets, 1 Kestrel, 1 Hobby, 2 Sand Martins W, 61 Swallows W, 6 House Martins W, 1 Grey Wagtail, 6 Yellow Wagtails, 1,014 Meadow Pipits flying W and 1 Reed Bunting.

With the wind forecast to increase this afternoon Matt arrived at the Towers at 1200 and we joined him at 1245 staying there for another two hours. It was unfortunately rather slow but we did record 25 Gannets, 2 Guillemot E, 3 Arctic Skuas, 14 Sandwich Terns W, 3 large auks, 1 Peregrine, 1 Manx Shearwater E (183rd), 1 Great Crested Grebe W, 7 Common Scoter E, 5 Lesser Black-backed Gulls W, 2 Wheatears and 1 Yellow Wagtail.

About half an hour after we arrived home Matt phoned to say he was sitting in his car at Reculver car park and was watching a Wryneck (184th) run along the path in front of him. When we arrived five minutes later it had disappeared into the rocks but after ten minutes Matt found it again by the childrens' playground before it disappeared again into a bush.

Wryneck - Alex Perry

Today we received the ringing information of a Cetti's Warbler we caught on the Marsh on September 11th. It had been ringed at Nagden Marsh, Faversham on August 25th and had flown 24 km E to reach Reculver.