Last nights storm gave way to a brighter morning and by late afternoon there wasn’t a breath of wind. Main focus was on the open water where around Jerry’s Point/South Deep area there were 4 Long-tailed Duck, 2 Slavonian Grebe, 5 Great Northern Diver, 3 Scaup, 8 Black-necked Grebe, 3 Common Scoter, 37 Red-breasted Merganser and 18 Goldeneye. Off Middle Beach a large feeding flock of mixed gull species were feeding just before dusk with a minimum of 1000 birds present also 3 Great Northern Diver were in Studland Bay along with 8 Common Scoter, 6 Black-necked Grebe and 1 Gannet! At Sandbanks there were 2 Purple Sandpiper on the long groyn and a ringtail Hen Harrier was at Lytchett Bay. On Poole Park boating lake there were 5 Red-breasted Merganser and 3 Goldeneye and the Peregrine was back on the Asda building. It was also noted recently that 2 ringed Bearded Tit that were photographed well at Radipole on Jan 14th were in fact 2 individuals that were ringed in Lytchett Bay on October 10th last year, providing more examples of  local dispersal between Poole Harbour and Weymouth.

Goldeneye – Poole Park – Clare Slade

Red-breasted Merganser – Poole Park – Clare Slade