The harbour was picture perfect today, with a layer of frost last almost lasted the entire duration of the day. The low, bright sun made viewing a bit tricky but once again there was so much to experience right the way around the harbour. This morning was our first bird boat of the year and was a targeted Year List ‘kick-starter’ trip. We couldn’t have got off to a better start to the year with 65 species logged from the trip and consisted of 1 Black-throated Diver off Baiter, 3 Great Northern Diver between Sandbanks and Brands Bay, 1 Long-tailed Duck, 1 Eider and 3 Black-necked Grebe off Jerry’s Point, 2 Sandwich Tern off Furzey, 1 Guillemot off Poole Quay, 1 Barnacle Goose and 4 Marsh Harrier at Swineham, 23 Spoonbill on Shipstal, RSPB Arne and 2 Goldeneye in the mouth of the Wareham Channel. Also, due to the Brownsea Lagoon being frozen over, all waders and wildfowl were displaced, trying to find suitable alternative roost sites with random Avocet flocks roosting in the Wareham Channel, Ower Bay and Fitzworth. Elsewhere there were 2 drake Pochard on Holme Lane GP, the Snow Bunting continued to please crowds in the bright organge winter sun at Hamworthy Beach, a Short-eared Owl was hunting over Arne Moors this afternoon, 2 Slavonian Grebe were off Jerry’s Point after sunrise and the 2 Purple Sandpiper were still on the Sandbanks groyns. A Great White Egret came into roost at Swineham this evening, a Merlin was at Lytchett Bay and both drake Mandarin Ducks were still in Poole Park.

Kingfisher – Lytchett Bay – Alison Copland