It’s been pretty quite around the harbour over the last few days, but a big increase in the number of raptors, especially around the Wareham Channel has been a welcome sight. Today the Wareham Channel held 5 Marsh Harrier, 1 Hen Harrier, 2 Merlin, 2 Peregrine, along with Kestrel, Buzzard and Sparrowhawk. These are all species of raptor you could expect to see around the harbour throughout the winter in a single day.
At Lytchett Bay 2 Spotted Redshank, 2 Green Sandpiper, 63 Lapwing, 7 Greenshank, 3 Kingfisher, 1 House Martin, 1 Marsh Harrier and an obvious arrival of Blackbirds with 40+ in a small area.
Blackcap and Chiffchaff are still passing through many hedgerows, although numbers are dropping off slowly.
At Sunnyside/Soldiers Road a Firecrest was near the car park, 11 Skylark passed overhead, a flock of 100+ Linnet were feeding in one of the fields and 2 Snipe were flushed.
Around the country, quite a few Great Grey Shrike have arrived, and as this bird is a scarce but almost annual migarnt to Dorset, it will be well worth checking the tops of all the pine trees on any heathland walks you take!
This morning heralded the first ‘semi-decent’ winter thrush arrival of the season with Redwing, Blackbird and Song Thrush…
Find out moreBlimey, the temperature certainly ‘dipped’ today. It felt like we were all needing to moult into our own…
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