Well, we’re now on the run in to not only Christmas, but the end of another busy year too. The years just seem to be going so fast, as do the weeks. Well, it definitely felt like winter today with a hard frost on most folks windscreens and the mercury reading -3 degrees. A cold NE wind at dawn didn’t help much either, but there was some hope for a last ditch vis-mig pulse of birds, however a session up on Ballard at dawn didn’t produce much apart from very cold fingers and toes. The only movement along Ballard was in the form of 5 Greenfinch, 17 Goldfinch, 10 Chaffinch, 5 Linnet, 2 Siskin, 10 Starling and 2 Fieldfare. Also up on Ballard there were also 2 Firecrest in the scrub and 1 Chiffchaff. Once again, the main interest came from around the Studland Peninsular with the Long-tailed Duck off Jerry’s Point again along with 1 Black-throated Diver and 1 Red-throated Diver in the main shipping lane near the harbour mouth, 2 Great Northern Diver, 4 Goldeneye, 28+ Great Crested Grebe and 1 Slavonian Grebe. There were also 2 Black-necked Grebe near the harbour mouth and at Lytchett Bay 5 Spoonbill were in the bay and a Great White Egret was at Lytchett Fields. The White-tailed Eagle pair were in the Wareham Channel for most of the day and there were 4 Marsh Harrier at Swineham. It’s a very strange scenario when Fieldfare are outnumbering Redwing as the most numerous ‘winter thrush’, but that certainly seems to be the case at the moment with a decent sized Fieldfare flock feasting on apples at Middlebere, but barely a Redwing to be seen (or heard) across much of the harbour, just small numbers of ones and twos.

Long-tailed Duck – Jerry’s Point – Rob Johnson

Fieldfare – Middlebere – Rob Johnson