It was a cold, chilly all day and I’m sure we’ve seen a small cold weather movement (maybe just local?) of some species. Today I took a school group out on a bird boat around the harbour and there was an obvious rise in numbers of Red-breasted Merganser, Goldeneye and Great Crested Grebe in every section we visited. Out on Shipstal at least 15 Spoonbill were still present, a Great Northern Diver was off the Brownsea north shore and a few Black-necked Grebe were present, one off Brownsea south shore and one a couple of hundred meters off Poole Quay. The Brownsea Lagoon was totally frozen over, meaning many birds had been pushed out to other areas like Holes Bay, which as predicted was full of birds this afternoon. Highlights near the outflow included 2 Common Sandpiper, 2 Spotted Redshank, 1 Spoonbill, 1 Kingfisher, the Smew which commuted between the outflow and the bridge, also 5 Goldeneye near the bridge plus 300 Avocet, 200 Black-tailed Godwit, 200 Redshank, 300 Wigeon, 200 Teal, 8 Dunlin and numerous Curlew, Oystercatcher and a good gathering of gulls.
The harbour was at it’s coldest, wintery best today with what seemed like a monumental number of birds…
Find out moreAnother cold day, but there seems to be loads of common wetland birds in the harbour currently. In…
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