Come on 2024, give us something a bit different…….please!! We ended the year with 3 months of storms and torrential rain, and have started the year with….well, storms and torrential rain. That said, we did notice a slightly lighter sky this evening when leaving the office just after 5pm, so things are on the up. The cold spell forecast for next week will hopefully? maybe? shake things up a bit. It’s going to be interesting to see if the storms over recent days have brought in more Great Northern Divers, and whether there’s another record total out there? There’s currently 10-15  around the Studland Peninsular alone at the moment, and with the harbour record broken last month on Dec 15th, with 25 logged there’s a good chance we could see that number toppled over the next week. Also today the Black-throated Diver was off Jerry’s Point again and the Long-tailed Duck was in Brands Bay with a decent count of 9 Goldeneye, there was 1 Slavonian Grebe off Redhorn and 5 Black-necked Grebe in Studland Bay. On Lytchett Fields there were 3 Spotted Redshank and the White-tailed Eagle pair were back in the harbour along the southern shores.

Little Egret – Poole Park