The harbour really was at it’s best today with a whole suit of birds at different areas. A focused 12 hour watch around the whole harbour along with numerous ‘Bird Race’ teams out and about meant there was some excellent coverage today. Highlights started at 5:30am 2 Jack Snipe and several Common Snipe out on Baiter Park. At the top of Soldiers Road 5 Woodcock were in the open fields on Hartland Moor. At dawn a watch at the harbour mouth saw 1 Long-tailed Duck arrive in from the east and disappeared again out into Poole Bay, also 2 Great Northern Diver, 4 Black-necked Grebe and 35 Shag were on the water. On Pilots Point 33 Grey Plover, 17 Sanderling, 3 Dunlin and 5 Ringed Plover roosted. Also at dawn a finch roost left South Haven with several each of Greenfinch, Bullfinch, 1 Lesser Redpoll, a few Reed Bunting and 2 Great-spotted Woodpecker heading inland. A seawatch from Branksome Chine produced another Long-tailed Duck settled on the water, 5 Red-throated Diver (1 on the water and 4 on passage east), 4 Gannet, 2 Wigeon and 1 Teal west, and 2 Auk sp (likely Razorbill) east. A Blackcap was seen in a private Poole garden. The top end of the PCW drain was bustling with Chiffchaff including a cracking Siberian Chiffchaff with a Cetti’s Warbler there too. Holes Bay was brimming with birds too including good numbers of Dunlin, Avocet, Black-tailed Godwit, Teal and Wigeon. In the Piddle Valley 2 Egyptian Geese were on the flooded fields and along Holme Lane a Great Bustard was seen flying over and a small flock of Woodlark were feeding in fields. Off Jerry’s Point there were the 2 regular Long-tailed Duck, 4 Slavonian Grebe, 8 Black-necked Grebe, 1 female Common Scoter, 3 Great Northern Diver and numerous Red-breasted Merganser. In total we logged 11 Great Northern Diver in the harbour today. In the Wareham Channel 2 Marsh Harrier were busy and the ringtail Hen Harrier was seen briefly and on Swineham GP 3 Pochard were present. Off Hamworthy Beach this evening a roost of c3000 Black-headed Gull settled. Also at sunset a Great White Egret flew up the Wareham Channel. The Peregrine was also on the Asda building. On the Brownsea Lagoon 1 Spotted Redshank was logged along with 3 Greenshank, c70 Bar-tailed Godwit, c600 Black-tailed Godwit and the usual. Off Middle Beach there were 4 Black-necked Grebe, 7 Common Scoter and 5 Ring-necked Parakeet in Studland Village. So, by the looks of it there’s no better time to get out and build your year lists than NOW! And with another big low pressure system coming through next week, what else will end up in the harbour next week??