A social media post posted last night from a Dutch birding group showed the amazing satellite images of huge numbers of birds leaving the Wadden Sea area of the Dutch/German coast, heading towards the UK last night. This resulted in large numbers of winter thrushes arriving on to the east coast this morning with small numbers filtering down to us here. Redwing were logged over Upton, Slepe Heath, Studland and Wareham this morning, but with another clear night tonight and northerly winds, there’s a good chance more will arrive tonight/tomorrow morning. Another new arrival today saw the return of an old friend, Water Pipit 1K, that was originally ringed at Lytchett Bay in 2020 and is now back again for it’s third winter. On the Brownsea Lagoon there was a minimum of 66 Spoonbill, and there were 2 White-tailed Eagles today with G801 returning having been for a long distance wander over the last couple of days, and a new arrival in the form of 3-year old G866 who only retuned from Scotland last week, and has since been mooching around the south coast, likely in search of a mate. Peregrine and Marsh Harrier were causing mayhem at Lytchett Fields but there was at least 1 Little Stint, 1 Curlew Sandpiper and 1 Ruff. In Middlebere c370 Avocet were roosting and 2 Marsh Harrier and 1 Merlin were busy around the top end of the channel. A ringtail Hen Harrier was at Middlebere this evening and 2 Curlew Sandpiper were in Holes Bay north, a decent holes bay record!

Water Pipit ‘1K’ – Lytchett Fields – Ian Ballam