2024 SIGHTINGS
A year with most of the recording area hotspots finally open to access for the first time since early 2020.
A new record 190 species were reported and once again Avocets, Little Ringed Plovers and Lapwings attempted to breed with the latter two being successful. Tufted Duck and Gadwall also produced ducklings again this year.
Highlights included multiple Red-throated Divers, Slavonian Grebe, Bewick’s Swans, Whooper Swan, White-fronted Geese, Barnacle Geese, Pink-footed Goose and Egyptian Geese, Red-crested Pochards, Garganey, Goosander, Red-breasted Merganser, Eider, Lesser Yellowlegs, White-rumped Sandpiper, Purple Sandpipers, Woodcock, Temminck’s Stint, Curlew Sandpipers, Spotted Redshank, Black Terns and Little Terns, Caspian Gulls, Little Gulls, Razorbill and Guillemots, Shags, White Stork, 2 Cranes, Glossy Ibis, 6 Spoonbills, 20 Cattle Egrets (including a record flock of 10), 43+ Great White Egrets, Manx Shearwaters, Leach’s Petrels, 7 Ospreys, a White-tailed Eagle, 4 Goshawks, multiple Marsh Harriers and 27+ Red Kites, Long-eared, Short-eared, Tawny, Barn and Little Owl, Pied Flycatchers, Black Redstart, Yellow-browed Warbler, Firecrests, 2 Bearded Tits, Waxwing, Wryneck, multiple Woodlarks, Hawfinches and Crossbills.
Disappointments included the lack of any Wood Warbler, Ring Ouzel, Wood Sandpiper, Storm Petrel, Pomarine Skua, Goldeneye, Scaup, Snow Bunting or Lapland Bunting.
Click on the Calendar pictures below for detailed daily sightings and pictures for each month....
