A large gull roost this evening with 5 Yellow-legged Gulls 4adults and 1 3rd winter. 3500 LBB Gull, 50 Herring Gull and 2 GBB Gull. Also 3 Goosander were present.

2006 has been a satisfactory year with a total of 170 Species recorded. My personel total of 167 was my 3rd highest ever with Pied Flycatcher, Grasshopper Warbler and Mandarin the only birds I missed. I managed to visit Belvide 325 times which was a record beating my previous best of 308 in 2003.

Highlights included a female American Wigeon during February and March, also 2 Red-necked Grebe and 2 Barn Owl during the same period.

A male Firecrest on the 3rd April was the first for 12 years and a Great Grey Shrike on the 8th April was the 3rd consecutive year one had been seen. A fly over Woodlark on the 29th April was Belvide's 2nd record also a Red Kite on the same day.

An early Pectoral Sandpiper om August 24th-26th was the 7th ever record.

September saw a juvenile Great Skua on the 3rd and a juvenile Red-necked Grebe on the 8th.

4 Whooper Swan and a Red-breasted Merganser on November 2nd was the highlight of a poor month.

The iceing on the cake came on a 3 day period between December 7th-9th. Firstly Belvide's 2nd ever Pomarine Skua flew thru on the 7th then 2 Leach's Petrel on the 8th and 9th were the 3rd and 4th ever records and the first since 1989. Finally 7 Bewick's Swan on December 18th capped off a fine year.