It was a great morning to be out today with the Poole Harbour WeBS counters out in force covering the whole harbour at 9:30am. The calm conditions really helped and good totals of multiple species were logged with highlights consisting of 3 Long-tailed Duck (2 off Jerry’s Point and 1 near Newton Bay), 8 Great Northern Diver, mostly off Jerry’s Point, 13 Goldeneye scattered across the harbour, 26 Black-necked Grebe (11 Middle Beach, 7 Jerry’s Point, 4 Shell Bay and 4 Central Harbour), 4 Scaup in Brands Bay, 6 Common Scoter (3 off Jerry’s Point and 3 off Middle Beach, 18 Spoonbill in Middlebere along with 100+ Great Crested Grebe, 80+ Red-breasted Merganser, 1 Goosander in Lytchett Bay and excellent totals of regular over-wintering waders and wildfowl. Additional bonuses included 2 Reeve’s Pheasant near Norden Sewage works (most likely recent releases), 2 Water Pipit at Lytchett Fields, 1 Great White Egret in Brands Bay, 4 Marsh Harrier in the Wareham Channel, a ringtail Hen Harrier at Morden Bog and 2 Merlin (1 Middlebere, 1 Slepe). At Swineham a Barnacle Goose was hiding in amongst the many Canada Geese and on the GP were 3 Pochard.