Winter has a nice habit of throwing up the odd oddity here and there and this morning 2 Common Crane seen heading west up the Frome Valley near Wareham was a good start to the day. A (the) flock of 22 Barnacle Geese ended up on Swineham GP again mid afternoon with 3 Marsh Harrier seen in the general area there too. At Middlebere 2 Woodcock were seen heading out at dusk with a Firecrest calling outside the hide and out in the channel c350 Avocet were sat hunkered down out of the wind on the rising tide. At Arne, apart from the 2500 people there for their now famous ‘Pull a Pine’ event a male Merlin, 3 Spoonbill and a Firecrest were seen. Off Jerry’s Point there were 16 Red-breasted Merganser, 1 Goldeneye, 16 Grey Plover along with several Turnstone and Sanderling. Out in Lytchett Bay the Lesser Yellowlegs was off the black pipe and there were 199 Avocet out in the bay. Out in Brands Bay there were 4 Common Scoter and a Peregrine whilst out from Middle Beach a minimum of 5 Black-necked Grebe were noted, although choppy sea made counting difficult. 

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Lesser Yellowlegs – Lytchett Bay – Ian Ballam