NEW YEAR'S DAY IN THE WIND AND RAIN

In previous years New Year's Day had been heralded in with decent weather and birds such as Lapland Bunting,Shorelark and Waxwing likely to crop up on the list...not this year and it was amazing that Marc and myself managed to see the birds we did!When you don't even manage Kestrel,Kingfisher,Redwing and Collared Dove you know it's been hard work.The camera never even left the bag in always dismal conditions and sometimes monsoonal rain.We started off at Minnis Bay and then drove to the Towers and walked back via the Railway Embankment.We started off reasonably well with 2 Snow Buntings flying high over the sea and settling somewhere on the shingle by the Towers.More common species followed but we couldn't even find a Grey Heron.A single Grey Wagtail livened proceedings somewhat and we received a text that a Yellowhammer was on the Embankment.Now I'm sure for a lot of you Yellowhammer is no big deal...but in Reculver terms this is big.You can easily go a whole year without seeing one.After a long, long search Marc finally found it sitting miserably at the bottom of a bush.A smart Male and the undoubted highlight of the day.We made it Minnis in driving rain and high winds and after drying out we had a quick seawatch adding Red Throated Diver and Guillemot(ordinary).Despite everything 56 species was reasonable and I will try and make a reasonable effort to beat my 178 species of 2 years ago.