It’s all about the open water at the moment. To have such a sustained long period of still weather is pretty rare in December so monitoring the open water bodies of the harbour has been a sheer joy this last week or so. This morning 11 Black-necked Grebe were off Hamworthy Park beach with 13 later counted off Shipstal Point, Arne. Great Northern Divers were off both sites too with another off Baiter. There have been 2 Kingfisher bombing around Poole Quay this last week, often favouring the stone entrance to the marina opposite the Lord Nelson pub. Goldeneye, Red-breasted Merganser and winter plumaged Great Crested Grebe are all fairly easy to locate now out on the open water, certainly any area west of Brownsea. Spoonbills were roosting on Shipstal, Arne and up to 3 Guillemot have been fishing in between Baiter and the Poole ferry terminal all week. There were even a few signs of spring (yes spring) when a Song Thrush was in full song at Upton CP mid morning, indicating how mild it is.  At least one Siberian Chiffchaff was seen again at the northern end of the PC World drain with 2 Common Chiffchaff and a Firecrest.

Little Egret – PC World drain 

Firecrest – PC World drain