Another wet and wild day as it seems the jet stream is sat right over southern Britain currently, although we hear on the grape vine that post Christmas we could begin to see the beginnings of a beast from the east…media gossip? Or metrological fact?  Lest wait and see. With 30mph winds and heavy rain, it was a surprise when it was reported to us that the Slavonian Grebe was out in Parkstone Bay, but when we learnt it was local birder Ian Ballam that had reported it we weren’t that surprised at all! Interestingly the playing fields at Baiter were relatively quite all day with just a few gulls, some Black-tailed Godwit and Oystercatcher, but when we checked after work in the dark, using our thermal imaging camera there were around 400 Dunlin feeding out on the fields which shows these large areas of grass in the centre of town can play an important role after sunset.