Saturday 2nd January 2016
80 Little Gulls (nearly all adults) south is remarkable when one considers that we only saw three in total in the whole of 2015. Interestingly they only got going late morning. Also remarkable is our first ever January record of Sooty Shearwater heading north from 0920 to 0925hrs & either another or the same one heading south off the estuary five minutes later. Also southbound 178 Brent, 178 Wigeon, 98 Shelduck, 44 Teal, 25 Common Gull, 16 Golden Plover, 9 Pintail, 7 Shoveler, 7 Kitts, 4 Gadwal, 3 Red-throated Diver, 3 Pochard, 3 Common Scoter, 2 Tufted Duck, 2 Oyk, 1 Long-tailed Duck (only one of these noted in 2015), 1 Eider, 1 Red-breasted Merganser, 1 Curlew, 1 Barwit, 1 Turnstone & 1 Bonxie plus northbound 20 Brent, 4 Kitts, 3 Red-throated Diver, 3 Wigeon, 2 Shoveler, Pochard, Common Scoter & Bonxie (or the same Bonxie as above ?). Looks like an impressive list but a lot of man hours put in for the above tally.