August 1st

On a bright and breezy morning we walked along the seawall to the Green Wall and on our return to Reculver identified a juvenile Purple Heron flying W out at sea (171st). Initially it was flying low over the waves at the distance of the green buoy but then started to fly towards the shore but was soon greeted by the local gulls. It then turned around and flew back out towards the wind farm. This is the 16th record of a Purple Heron in the recording area. I managed to take an awful distant photo with my bridge camera which, with a bit of zooming, shows its large feet.

Very distant view of Purple Heron later seen at Swalecliffe

 Other birds we saw included 3 Oystercatchers, 31 Mediterranean Gulls, including 29 adults, flying W, 30 Black-headed Gulls, 5 Cormorants, 6 Goldfinches, 11 Little Egrets, 2 Pied Wagtails, 1 Yellow Wagtail, 13 Linnets, 4 Stonechats, 2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, 5 Ringed Plovers, 1 Grey Heron, 3 Turnstone, 1 Common Sandpiper, 1 Whitethroat and 1 Common Buzzard.

Sunflower field