Our School Bird Boat today capitalised on the recent stormy weather, picking up 15 Great Northern Diver mostly around the harbour mouth, Brands Bay, South Deep area. The trip didn’t visit any of the northern shoreline or Wareham Channel which often holds several more, so it is possible that 20+ individuals could currently be in the harbour at the moment. Let’s see how many Divers we can pick up off Baiter on our urban guided walk (leaving BoPH HQ at 10am tomorrow).

Lytchett Fields continued to hold 2 Water Pipit and 1 Rock Pipit in front of French’s Pool Viewpoint, along with 2 Green Sandpiper, 2 Greenshank. 1 Spotted Redshank and 23 Dunlin. The Wareham Common Siberian Chiffchaff was still at base of Northwest Walls in ditch by River Piddle. A total of 5 Goldeneye and a Red-breasted Merganser on Poole Park Lake while a very wet Sunnyside Scrape produced Gadwall new in. The Morden Bog Great Grey Shrike was again observed west of Decoy Pond this morning.

The day (very briefly) started with a bit of sun, but by sunset a force 8 storm had rolled in battering our office on the quay. Still, there were a few decent sightings including some great views of both Marsh and Hen Harrier hunting out in front of Holton Pools with a Water Pipit on the scrape there too. At Lytchett Fields there were a further 4 Water Pipit along with 4 Green Sandpiper, 235 Lapwing and 2 Greenshank. Just outside the harbour the Great Grey Shrike was again at Morden Bog. Off Baiter the 2 Great Northern Diver were still present but a bit distant.

The high tide and strong winds at Middlebere produced highlights of Merlin and ringtail Hen Harrier, large flocks of Wigeon and Teal, c50 Brent Goose, c20 Curlew, c30 Dunlin, 10 Pintail, c300 Avocet and numerous Redshank. A Pochard was among the Tufted Duck and Gadwall at Hatch Pond this morning. The Great Grey Shrike showed well on Morden Bog this morning around Decoy Pond. Also noted were 3 Stonechat, c70 Redwing and 4 Siskin. A Blackcap visited garden feeders in Parkstone, keep an eye out for these increasingly regaular over-wintering warblers.

With a low-tide cruise looming at 12:30pm today and a bank of low cloud/drizzle looming even lower over the harbour, there was a question as to whether we’d see anything at all. However, the birding gods were looking down on us and provided a great range of species for everyone to enjoy. As we reached the top end of the Wareham Channel the tide drained away nicely allowing 300+ Dunlin to feed on the mud along with Curlew, Oystercatcher, 200+ Lapwing and a few Avocet. The best though were 3 Marsh Harrier, 1 close to the boat and the Hen Harrier flew along the Arne Moors shoreline, also a feeding Spoonbill close to the boat on the Arne shoreline. A Common Seal also came and said hello close to the boat. Out around the harbour we had 8 Great Northern Diver, c10 Goldeneye, 1 Common Scoter, 2 Long-tailed Duck (South Deep) and 100+ Red-breasted Merganser, The Brownsea Lagoon was busy with 1500+ Black-tailed Godwit, c70 Bar-tailed Godwit, 1 Greenshank, 100+ Avocet, 50+ Shoveler and gatherings of gulls coming into roost. Off Middle Beach there were 10 Black-necked Grebe and 5 Common Scoter with a Slavonian Grebe off Shell Bay where 44 Grey Plover roosted with 13 Ringed Plover and 18 Sanderling.