The day started with very light south-easterly winds and slowly dissipating fog revealing better visibility, and a lot of birds moving offshore. The best of the eastbound passage being our fifth best ever spring day of Brent Geese with 6427 passing, and five Spoonbills! Of these five, four came off the reserve and flew east out to sea by the New Lighthouse, while this evening another adult bird flew east over the seawatching hide. Other notables include five Shovelers, 15 Wigeons, four Velvet Scoters, 93 Common Scoters, four Red-breasted Mergansers, a Bar-tailed Godwit, a Little Gull, 266 Kittiwakes, 1124 Black-headed Gulls (mostly passing incredibly high up!), 42 Mediterranean Gulls, 432 Common Gulls, 240 Red-throated Divers.
There was clearly a small arrival of birds on the land too, with a Woodcock, a Merlin, 21 Jackdaws, nine Chiffchaffs, 23 Goldcrests, six Firecrests, a Song Thrush and six Redwings. There was plenty of signs of overhead visible migration too, 130 Starlings, seven Skylarks and 21 Meadow Pipits arrived in-off the sea while 510 Chaffinches, a Greenfinch and three Siskins headed eastwards.
Mammals recorded offshore were five Porpoise and a Grey Seal.
Elsewhere, the two Whooper Swans and 10 Cattle Egrets were still at Cockles Bridge.
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| Brent Geese Branta bernicla |
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| Chiffchaff Phylloscopus collybita |
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| Mixture of Black-headed Gulls (Chroicocephalus ridibundus) and Common Gulls (Larus canus), with one Mediterranean Gull (Ichthyaetus melanocephalus) at the back. |
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| Black-headed Gulls Chroicocephalus ridibundu |