With the cloud cover arriving last night, and the wind swinging round northerly it’s back to feeling rather wintery again, but hopefully not for too long. It was much of the same again today, with all the recent regulars putting in an appearance somewhere. The Forster’s Tern was once again showing brilliantly on the main Poole Park boating lake, often moving to settle on buoys further out, but would return to the short posts near the enclosed reedy area on the eastern edge, plus the male Mandarin Duck was also on the main boating lake and a female flew over Holmebridge. The 2 Common Crane were seen again, coming in from high over Wareham Common about 11:30am, before heading down towards Swinehem, but they wren’t seen settling anywhere. The Water Pipit was once again seen from our Winter Safari this AM in the mouth of the River Frome and there were 4 Marsh Harrier around the Swineham/Keysworth area. The White-tailed Eagle pair were sat on the shoreline near Ower Bay, 3 Great Northern Diver were counted with 1 off Poole Quay, one off Hamworthy Beach and another near the harbour entrance, and 5 Black-necked Grebe were in Brands Bay. The Brownsea Lagoon is starting to transition from a winter site to a spring site with some new arrivals including a summer plumaged Ringed Plover, plus 89 Mediterranean Gulls and 2 Spoonbill, although these have been around since the autumn. The lagoon also held 394 Black-tailed Godwit, 158 Oystercatcher, 74 Avocet, 124 Redshank, 51 Bar-tailed Godwit, 16 Curlew, 12 Greenshank and 11 Grey Plover. A Red Kite drifted down the Piddle Valley, the 10 Glossy Ibis were still out on Wareham Common, beneath North Walls, 31 Cattle Egret were on the northern area of Wareham Common and a Great White Egret was on Bestwall meadows. Finally the adult Little Gull was once again off Rock Lea View in Lytchett Bay and a Spotted Redshank was out in the bay.

Forster’s Tern – Poole Park boating lake

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