A lull in the weather saw some good coverage a really great Poole Harbour find. A Snow Bunting was found near Studland Bay before disappearing north around 10:30am. Snow Bunting can be incredibly tricky to catch up with in Poole Harbour so its hoped it could have come down again somewhere within the harbour, perhaps Shell Bay/South Haven area? Apparently it had also been noted in the Brands Bay diary for last week too? Out in Brands Bay just a single Greenshank, 50+ Curlew and 336 Shelduck were of note. In Shell Bay, 3 Slavonian Grebe, 1 male Common Scoter, 1 Great Northern Diver and 40-50 Sanderling were counted whilst off Middle Beach just a single Red-breasted Merganser was seen. At Norden Sewage Works 2 Siberian Chiffchaff were with c15 Common Chiffchaff and a Firecrest feeding on the filter beds. At Middlebere 2 Marsh Harrier, 1 Peregrine, 1 Spotted Redshank and c500 Avocet were present and at Swineham/Bestwall there was 1 Marsh Harrier, 2 Spoonbill feeding in mouth of the Frome, 14 Barnacle Geese were on the pits, and a good number of Lapwing, Black-tailed Godwit and Dunlin are still enjoying the flooded areas of the Lower Frome Valley. The Poole Park Boating Lake is still semi-drained and a Kingfisher was seen with several Redshank, Black-tailed Godwit and Oystercatcher all on the mud. At Lytchett Bay a ringtail Hen Harrier flew through and Skylarks were singing in the Arable Field. At the end of Lytchett Heath, Bearded Tits were calling from the reedbed and on the heath Dartford Warbler were active and a big increase of Lapwing was noted on Lytchett Fields with 473 counted also the Lesser Yellowlegs, 1 Marsh Harrier, 2 Water Pipit, 609 Dunlin and 4 Greenshank present. There were 3 different ringtail Hen Harrier in Poole Harbour west late in the afternoon. 

Water Rail feeding with Blackbird – Lytchett Fields – Ian Ballam