Happy New Year everyone! What a way to start the year, with a near force 10 gale. Thankfully it tracked through fairly quickly, and although the rain persisted until this evening, the wind had largely moved through by mid-afternoon. This meant the Snow Bunting which went into hiding for a period of time this morning, finally came out again for patient birders who were looking to get their year lists off to a good start. Studland and Shell Bay were sheltered enough to check and logged 2 Great Northern Diver, 4 Black-necked Grebe, 1 Kittiwake, 7 Gannet and a moderate stream of Auks were heading west out in Poole Bay. At dawn a good count of 42 Red-breasted Merganser flew into the harbour along with 2 Great Northern Diver, 1 Black-throated Diver and 1 Long-tailed Duck. 

A rather bedraggled Snow Bunting compared to it’s pristine condition yesterday – Hamworthy Park – Peter Moore

A torrid new Year scene this morning – Hamworthy Park – Lucy McRobert