New Year's Day

A 17 mile circular walk from home produced a list of 47 birds including a female Blackcap at Llanon. Previous years have always resulted in over 50 but there was little about on the coast (2 red throated divers). No redshanks. Has anybody else noticed how few there seem to be this year? I used to see large flocks of Golden Plovers in the Llanon area, including the fields above Llanon but haven't seen any this year. Plenty of Lapwings at Ty Gwyn pools.