Although we avoided the snow today, it was still pretty dang cold! Our 3-hour Winter Safari this morning certainly lived up to it’s name and the northerly wind whipped across central harbour. The icy blast kept birds low, but interestingly many Marsh Harrier were lingering around the Lower Frome, suggesting they didn’t really fancy tracking off in their normal northerly direction to go and hunt for the day, with 7-8 opting to hang around Swineham for most of the morning, plus we saw one arrive in over Sandbanks mid-morning. Out on RSPB Arne Moors there were 2 Pink-footed Geese in the NW corner, with all the Greylags and Canada Geese. Out in central harbour there was a definite increase in Red-breasted Merganser and there was a single Common Scoter. The Brownsea Lagoon held 8 Spoonbill and 500+ Avocet, along with 5 Greenshank and c100 Bar-tailed Godwit. There were also 12 Spoonbill on Shipstal Point, RSPB Arne and 1 Spotted Redshank at RSPB Lytchett Fields. There have been 2-4 Red Kite hanging around over the Swineham area these last few weeks, with 2 over Swineham GP today and both adult Peregrines were on the Asda building this morning and 10 Glossy Ibis were just south of the causeway just outside Wareham this afternoon. Finally, yesterdays finder of the Wheatear on private land at Wallisdown went back today to double check and get photos, and managed to confirm it to be a Northern Wheatear.….a great late November record, and always worth double checking!

Northern Wheatear – Wallisdown – Daniel Nash