The Goosander, Brambling, Peregrine and Woodcock by the 13th Jan, then the joy of finding another Brent Goose 6th Feb, Jack Snipe 24th, Med 28th.
But then there was lovely little surprise waiting for John and I on that snowy 1st March dawn, 3 Ruff, 2 Dunlin, 7 at LFL later and Pintail thrown in too. A Golden Plover on the deck at Sandford was rare in itself on the 3rd, Black-necked Grebe trumped that later that morning.
My 8th Merlin, a male perched on the landfill for 5 minutes on 17th was pretty special.
The sequence of Wheatear, Arctic Tern, Little Gull, then yet another Great White Egret find for me on 9th April, kept spirits very high.
28th April was another dash for gold, with the first Wood Warbler in a generation, only seen by 6-7 people. The 2 Whimbrel on the deck at LFL on 30th, was wonderful to share with good friends.
You cannot take for granted species like Ringed Plover, Garganey, Black Tern, Greenshank, Red Crested Pochard, or Black-tailed Godwit, but they all showed up in our hottest of long hot summers, Linnet, Spotted Flycatcher, Whinchat and Yellow Wagtail kept me guessing and working hard, but it all came good.
12th Sept the game went up a notch, Pied Flycatcher being unheard of in autumn before, then up another notch 24th Oct with my second self found Yellow-Browed Warbler, staying 10 days.
A last ditch Curlew helped the wader count 29th Oct, AND oh boy was I lucky to be in the car returning from a shopping trip when Steve Day put out the news of Grey Phalarope at Tern scrape, I got there with 24 seconds spare before it left.
AND that should have been it, all my luck used up, but NO, one more gem in the form of 4 Common Crane graced the skies as they drifted over East during the work party.
Farewell 2018, bring it on 2019 I can't wait to see what treasures await us.
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