A quite chilly SW wind was whipping across the area today making viewing quite challenging, but tucked away in the sand dunes at Studland, the Snow Bunting showed on and off, as it played hide and seek for a few hours as it disappeared intermittently. It was favouring the section of beach on the edge of the dunes, 250m north of where the track leads on to the nudist beach. Without doubt the best bird of the day was a fly over Twite at Branksome Dene, found (heard) by Nick Hopper, which was with a small flock of Linnet as it headed west. This is the first harbour record since 1983 and to put into context how rare they are in the harbour, there have been almost as many Long-billed Dowitcher in Poole Harbour as there have been Twite! The Forster’s Tern was seen off Shipstal Beach, RSPB Arne again yesterday and this morning both White-tailed Eagles were in the Wareham Channel. At Lytchett Bay there were 3 Water Pipit with at least 1 which was colour-ringed.

Snow Bunting – Studland Beach – Nick Hopper