With a howling gale blowing for most of the day many birds were sensibly keeping their heads down. A school bird boat ventured out around the harbour mid morning and was rewarded with 3 Great Northern Diver, 1 Black-necked Grebe, 10+ Spoonbill, 100+ Red-breasted Merganser, 10+ Goldeneye, as well as all the Brownsea Lagoon usuals, Avocet, Bar-tailed Godwit, Oystercatcher, Grey Plover, Knot, Dunlin, Greenshank, Turnstone and Redshank. The Studland area received some coverage with South Haven seeing 4 Great Northern Diver, 1 Slavonian Grebe, 2 Black-necked Grebe, 28 Sanderling and 3 Kittiwake and at Middle Beach 7+ Black-necked Grebe, 15+ Gannet, 2 Common Scoter, 1 Peregrine, 5 Kittiwake, 4 Razorbill and 1 Guillemot. Baiter Park was a haven for sheltering/feeding birds with 250+ Brent Geese, 8 Turnstone, 100+ Oystercatcher (including the very pale backed bird reported a week ago), 1 Med Gull plus many Herring, Black-headed and Great Black Backed Gull. Well worth scanning the gull flocks for potential Glaucous or Iceland Gulls this time of year.