September 19th

With a strong SW wind blowing this morning there was a large westerly movement of House Martins. In one and a half hours we counted 1,600 moving through in waves over the sea and land. Looking further south there were also groups of birds moving over Chislet Marshes as far as the eye could see, however, we only counted those birds in Reculver Marshes airspace. Other birds we saw in the Reculver area included 3 Sand Martins W, 14 Swallows W, 1 Yellow Wagtail W, 5 Sandwich Terns E, 2 Common Buzzards, 58 Mallard, 9 Tufted Duck, 23 Teal, 14 Goldfinches, 1 Cetti's Warbler, 1 Great Crested Grebe, 2 Chiffchaffs, 7 Long-tailed Tits, 1 Grey Heron, 13 Wigeon, 14 Coot, 5 Gadwall and 1 Jay.

We have just received information about a first year Robin we ringed at Shuart on September 6th. It was killed by a cat at Colchester, Essex on September 13th and had flown 62 km NNW.