Another year

 

So it's 2016, and the year-list has to start again. It didn't get past February last year, but there was little to report so it didn't miss much. So far, three days in, it's up to an unimpressive 50 but that's without trying and with mostly foul weather. This year, I promise to do better.

Highlights so far are:

• sparrowhawk on the windowledge;
• coal tit on a feeder (uncommon here);
• 16 goldfinches eating up my pension fund; and
• 24 little gulls in an hour, flying south into the wind at the rifle range.

A fond farewell was said to the Prince of Wales pier which has provided bracing walks, good food and occasional birds in the past, but which will be redeveloped by Dover Harbour Board with questionable intentions.

There were a good few kittiwakes and turnstones, and a shag conveniently-placed next to a cormorant for comparison purposes.

The weather has been weird with monthly temperature records broken, no frosts and plants flowering ridiculously early, including a single coltsfoot on the range, which normally appear at the end of February.

What will happen next who knows (two months of snow, or a 1976 summer?).