April

                                    Species total for the year is 122

30th

An excellent seawatch, between the squalls that raced up the channel for most of the day, produced 12 Manx Shearwaters, 100+ Gannets, 8 Whimbrel, 235 Bar-tailed Godwits, 8 Great Skuas, 30 Arctic Skuas, 149 Commic Terns, 164 Common Terns, 45 Arctic Terns, 115 Sandwich Terns and a single Black Tern.

27th

Fewer birds than yesterday but of note we had our first Turtle Dove of the year and at 08:40 a Serin flew inland.

26th

First day that we have had good numbers of hirundines, mostly swallows,moving through all day.Whitethroats at last have arrived and we had 29 around the area also  10 Lessr Whitethroats. There were 6 Greenland Wheatears in the fields and at 11:45 a Black Kite flew north along the clifftop. The bird was seen later at Kingsdown and Deal.

20th

Thick fog prevented us finding many migrants around the area apart from 2 Black Redstarts, 1Common Redstart new for the year, 1 Ring Ouzel, 1 Yellow Wagtail, 6 Whitethroats, 4 Chiffchaffs, 1 Firecrest and 2 Bramblings.

Sea watching was completely out although, when having a cup of tea in the bay, we saw Whimbrel and Dunlin flying along the beach obviously completely disoriented in the fog. Later, in the Paddock, Tony also had 5 Whimbrel  flying around lost.

19th

We again braved the cold and did a seawatch in the bay and were rewarded with excellent views of a summer plumaged Great Northern Diver flying north at 10.30. Other notable birds were 4 Shovelers, 5 Common Scoters, 3 Dunlins, 4 Bar-tailed Godwits, 31 Knot, 28 Sandwich Terns and an Arctic Skua. In the area there was a Ring Ouzel and 3 Little Egrets.

18th

Today we had, on a very cold seawatch, 5 Shelducks, 2 Eiders , 15 Teal, 26 Common Scoters, 3 Shovelers, 2 Red-breasted Mergansers, 8 Whimbrel, 5 Sandwich Terns and 8 Common Terns all moving north.

17th

An hours seawatch in a bitterly cold easterly produced 10 Common Scoters, 15 Teal, 2 Red-breasted Mergansers, 2 Whimbrel, 2 Dunlin, 1 Great Skua, 1 Arctic Skua, 1 Med Gull and 11 Common Terns.

16th

Very little movement at sea, apart from 103 Common Scoters, 1 Bar-tailed Godwit, 7 Sandwich Terns and 17 Commic Terns. A visit to Langdon however produced our first Dingy Skipper butterflies of the year.

12th

Early morning we gathered in the Bay and were lucky enough to see a small movement of ducks north as well as 3 Manx Shearwaters and 2 Great Skuas.

Around the area were 8 Swallows, our highest count so far, 1 Grey Wagtail, 1 Wheatear, 1 Black Redstart, 4 Blackcaps, 8 Chiffchaffs, 3 Willow Warblers and a Brambling.

11th

Of note we had singles of Black Redstart, Willow Warbler and Firecrest, also 3 Coal Tits and 11 Siskins.

10th

Another disappointing day. Kingsdown Leas provided the only interest with 23 Coal Tits and a single House Martin, whilst the Undercliff held a single Black Redstart.

9th

Six Shelduck, one Firecrest, 38 Carrion Crows.........

8th

The change of weather promised much but produced very little, the only migration of note was our first Yellow Wagtail of the year and at 10.10hrs a Crane came in from the channel and flew due north in a hail storm.

6th

Before the snow set in we had 2 Swallows, 1 Ring Ouzel, 1 Black Redstart, 1 Blackcap, 6 Chiffchaffs, 2 Willow Warblers and 1 Firecrest. The only migration of note was 22 Carrion Crows moving north on the sea there was nothing apart from

3 Goosanders south.

5th

During the morning good numbers of finches moved north including 627 Chaffinches and 1273 Siskins. Also newly arrived on the clifftop were 6 Swallows, 2 Black Redstarts, 1 Wheatear, 1 Willow Warbler, 4 Chiffchaffs and a beautiful male Ring Ouzel.

On the sea there was a small movement north of ducks, mainly Common Scoter, and 3 Avocets which were new for the year. Also a porpoise was in the bay.