The Black Guillemot was located off Brownsea again during the morning and was then later found near the harbour entrance. My prediction is this general area is where it will hopefully now settle for a period of time, but given its previous behaviour it could well go missing again for a few weeks! The 2 Red-necked Grebe where off South Beach with one later moving to Shell Bay. With a Slavonian Grebe there too.  At Lytchett Bay a male Merlin, ringtail Hen Harrier a Marsh Harrier were all noted. A flock of 8 Pintail on Brownsea was the second highest total ever-recorded on Brownsea with 11 in January 1986 being the highest. This is pretty remarkable considering there are often 50+ in Brands Bay less than half a mile away and a couple of hundred in the harbour each winter. Black-necked Grebe were spread right along Studland Bay with 7 just inside the harbour mouth and off Middle Beach 13 Common Scoter, 1 Great Northern Diver, 5 Great Crested Grebe and 3 Sandwich Tern were counted.  A Little Gull was in Brands Bay. In Holes Bay there were 2 Spoonbill, 176 Avocet, 420 Black-tailed Godwit, 188 Teal, 396Wigeon, 127 Shelduck, 1 Peregrine and a Firecrest along back drive.  Swineham GP still holds Pochard, Tufted Duck, Shoveler, Teal, Gadwall and plenty of Greylag and Canada Geese. I’ve also uploaded some new videos of the Spoonbills in Holes Bay and Fieldfare in Wareham which you can watch HERE

Happy New Year everyone! The Poole Harbour birding year started off with a bang today with several good species recorded. The Black Guillemot has finally entered the harbour and was seen feeding of the SE corner of Brownsea. The Great White Egret was seen again on Littlesea at dusk. It was confirmed that there are indeed 2 Red-necked Grebe in the Studland area as one was feeding off Shell Bay whilst another was off South Beach. There were also 6 Black-necked Grebe and 10 Common Scoter off Middle Beach and a Slavonian Grebe 3 Black-necked Grebe and 2 Sandwich Tern off Shell Beach. A group of 3 Great Northern Diver were off the Brownsea north shore. A Little gull was seen over Furzey Island and then later seen at Lytchett Bay. An impressive 5 Hen Harrier were noted going into roost and Marsh Harrier were seen at several sites around the harbour.  There was a Merlin at Middlebere along with the usual channel species. Spoonbills were seen in Brands Bay, Lytchett Bay, Arne Bay and Brownsea Lagoon. Today’s video is of the Spotted Redshank flock that’s been choosing to feed at the mouth of the outflow of Holes Bay over the last few days…

TIP: To watch in HD, when watching the video, hover your curser over the screen so the panel at the bottom of the video screen appears. Click on the cog shaped symbol and then click on 1080HD. This will turn the video into HD after a few seconds