We’d hoped this morning would produce the wood, and it did!!! Wood Pigeons began appearing over Evening Hill at 06:58 with small flocks of 20, 40, 100…..before long big flocks of 500-1000 were moving and then between 8am and 9:30am streams of flocks between 500-2000 were moving high above the harbour. In the end our best estimate was 75,014 after totalling our tally, but the truth is several other flocks could/would have passed high unnoticed and it’s likely our count is an undercount. This was a good tally, but it didn’t quite hit the dizzy totals of 160k Wood Pigeon over the harbour in Nov 2010. Other highlights today included 5 Great Northern Diver, 1 Scaup, 2 Black-necked Grebe, 47 Great Crested Grebe and c15 Red-breasted Merganser. At Lytchett Bay, whilst also looking for Wood Pigeons, birders logged 2 Cattle Egret and 1 Egyptian Goose. At Arne 28 Spoonbill were on the Shipstal Spit and in the Piddle Valley a ringtail Hen Harrier was logged.

Wood Pigeon migration – High over Evening Hill