spent the day with ian barnard checking out various sites in the far east of the county. the main interest for me being the possibility of relocating the king eider (in sussex). pett was largely devoid of sea duck although a red throated diver was on one of the pools. a walk up the pannel valley produced 2 marsh harriers, plenty of med gulls, cetti's warbler and a very distant great grey shrike. 2 smart avocets and a marsh harrier were on the midrips with slav grebe and 2 scaup offshore. a few other bits and bobs were seen but annoyingly large gulls were few and far between.