January 1st

Matt and I spent a stormy morning battling the wind and trying to see how many species we could record on the first day of the year. Matt arrived at Shuart in the dark where he managed to find 1 Woodcock and 3 Lapwings. He then drove over to Reculver where I met him at 0730 and we had an hour's walk where birds we saw included 1 Water Rail, 64 Coot, 20 Mallard, 40 Gadwall, 1 female Pochard, 2 Teal, 7 Shoveler, 1 Great Crested Grebe, 5 Little Grebes, 3 Tufted Duck, 1 Grey Wagtail, 1 Cetti's Warbler, 1 Green Sandpiper, 1 Yellowhammer and 1 Firecrest. We then drove to Minnis Bay where we recorded 14 Gannets, 50 Dunlin, 120 Oystercatchers, 20 Dark-bellied Brent Geese, 40 Grey Plovers, 20 Turnstone, 100 Sanderling, 18 Curlew, 1 Shelduck W, 1 Red-throated Diver, 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull, 20 Redshank, 1 Purple Sandpiper, 1 Stonechat, 3 Snow Buntings, 1 Little Egret, 2 Long-tailed Tits and 2 Wigeon flying W. Our final total for the day was 71 species. 

Julian Perry was also out today and in addition to species we saw had Great Tit (72nd) and Corn Bunting (73rd).