Today we hosted one of our Wareham Channel winter bird boats. The forecast showed bright sunshine but potential strong winds. It started off brilliantly with a big low tide as we crept up the Wareham Channel and Wareham River where 16 Spoonbill fed in a muddy channel and the mudflats hosted good numbers of Curlew, Black-tailed Godwit, Dunlin, Redshank, Grey Plover, Shelduck Gadwall and Wigeon all fairly close to the boat, and as we headed up the River Frome 1-2 Marsh Harrier danced in the wind and Swineham GP saw c10 Tufted Duck, 4 Great Crested Grebe and c50 Canada Geese flew in from Arne Moors. As we headed out towards the harbour the wind had picked up making open water bodies difficult to bird, so we headed for the slightly more sheltered area of the Brownsea Lagoon where c100 Avocet, c200 Dunlin, c50 Grey Plover and c50 Bar-tailed Godwit were sheltering. By the late afternoon the wind had subsided and a sea watch from Branksome saw 1 Red-throated Diver, 1 Great Northern Diver, 17 Great Crested Grebe, 2 Guillemot and c10 Razorbill. The Black Redstart continued to show off for the many visitors the turned up to see it behind the Thistle Hotel and the Common Crane was again on Hartland but was seen out from the Middlebere hide during the day in sheep fields opposite the hide. The Mandarin was still posing in Poole Park, and once again, Holes Bay north was looking FAB despite the wind. As the temperatures drop, Holes Bay tends to retain a certain warmth to it due to it being surrounded by urbanisation and also the two outflow channels that run into it. This means many birds prefer feeding here rather than ‘preferred’ feeding sites, so today c200 Avocet, c400 Dunlin, lots of Wigeon and Teal etc were feeding right next to the footpath in the NE section. Well worth a visit this week on the low/rising tide if you have time.
Spring seems to be creeping along with more displaying and nest building birds today, including multiple Raven pairs/territories…
Find out moreAlthough you couldn’t see further than 100m for much of the day, there were birds to be found…
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