This morning we hosted our second public bird boat of the winter, which saw us venture up towards Wareham on the River Frome and then around the rest of the harbour. It was a tad windy but we still managed a good haul of species including the White-fronted Goose up at Swineham, 7 Little Grebe, c30 Great Crested Grebe, 5 Black-necked Grebe near the harbour mouth along with 6 Eider, 100+ Red-breasted Merganser, 10 Goldeneye, 2 Egyptian Geese, c300 Brent Geese, 1 Marsh Harrier, 1 Peregrine, 1 Kestrel, 35 Spoonbill, c1500 Dunlin, c200 Avocet, c40 Bar-tailed Godwit and c20 Curlew plus all the usual harbour cohort of Redshank, Shelduck, Shag, Pintail, Wigeon, Raven etc. An adult male Black Redstart was seen in the Skinner Street area which is the first to be reported this winter period. The Mandarin Duck was showing off outside in front of the café at Poole Park for most of the day and there were 8 Red-breasted Merganser, 5 Goldeneye, 61 Coot and 24 Mute Swan on the main lake too. The 18 Cattle Egret were in the Holme Lane fields again and a ringed Black-headed Gull that was photographed in Poole Park this week is known (thanks to the details sent by BTO) to be at least 22 years old! In Middlebere several hundred Avocet were still out in front of the hide and a Peregrine buzzed on through.

Shag – Brownsea shoreline – Rene Goad

White-fronted Goose – Swineham – Rene Goad

22-year old Black-headed Gull – Poole Park – Dorothy Widnall