Waxwings have finally made an appearance in Poole Harbour for more than 1 minute! This afternoon 8 were found this by @mervinius on twitter in Dacome Drive, Upton feeding on mistletoe. They left at about 4:30pm but will hopefully be back tomorrow and this could be the start of an arrival into Dorset, so keep checking those berry bushes!

With such a stunning, still day in the harbour some great coverage and accurate counts were possible. Although, much of the harbour was frozen first thing including Holes Bay, Brownsea Lagoon and even parts of the Wareham Channel, showing just how cold it is. 28 Goldeneye and 166 Red-breasted Merganser were counted throughout the harbour but these are fairly poor totals compared to previous years, indicating short-stopping of these species. The 1 female Greater Scaup was still in the Wareham Channel with 2 male Tufted Duck. Off Baiter there was 1 male Common Scoter and 1 Black-throated Diver. Still impressive numbers of Great Northern Diver around the harbour as well with 17 widely distributed. Middlebere is still providing plenty of raptors with 1 Goshawk this morning as well as male and ringtail Hen Harrier. 1 Water Pipit was seen on the approach field at Lytchett Fields as well as 1 Green Sandpiper. The harbour seems to be full of wildfowl currently with Swineham GP seeing c100 Shoveler and 6 Pochard with big numbers of Teal and Wigeon distributed across the entire harbour.

With some stormy weather forecast for the coming weekend and into next week it’ll be worth checking to see what else turns up. 

One of eight Waxwing – Dacome Drive, Upton – Paul Morton