Today wasn’t as cold as the last few days, and the sun even tried to pop out a few times. There are still loads of great birds across the harbour and our Winter Safari this morning managed to catch up with quite a few. The 5 Black-throated Diver off Evening Hill/Salterns Marina were still feeding in a tight flock just before midday, the Long-tailed Duck was with 4 Red-breasted Merganser off Jerry’s Point and an adult male Common Scoter was also new in off Jerry’s Point with 4 Black-necked Grebe there too and 5 more in central harbour. There were 3 Spoonbill in the Wareham Channel and 3 Ruff were flying around with Lapwing over Keysworth. A Goshawk briefly lifted out of a confier block on Arne to attack a Raven, but quickly disappeared again. Great Northern Diver numbers seem to have dropped off with only 3 logged today (rare for Black-throated to out-number Great Northerns). Wader numbers seemed slightly lower with c400 Avocet spread between the Wareham Channel and Brownsea and only about c50 Bar-tailed Godwit also on Brownsea. A lone Common Guillemot was off the Brownsea Quay and 6 Cattle Egret were on Wareham Common. Plus, as we predicted yesterday, this morning saw the first Sand Martin of the year, in Charmouth, West Dorset. Thats both Wheatear and Sand Martin now logged this year, meaning spring migration is truly underway!

Common Guillemot – Brownsea Quay – From Winter Safari this AM