The harbour is still really producing the goods, despite the blasting cold easterly wind that had set in by the end of the day. Without doubt the best find was a chance encounter between two species that are unlikely to have met too many times before within the harbour, when a Purple Sandpiper joined the Snow Bunting on Hamworthy beach this afternoon. Purple Sandpiper records within the harbour are incredibly unusual, although do occur. The maximum count is 11 in Feb 2008, Nov 2009, Jan 2010 and Jan 2011 all in and around north Haven, Sandbanks. However, interesting past inner-harbour records include 7 at Poole Quay on 8th Jan 1983, 8 at Arne on 8th Nov 1984, 3 at Hamworthy Beach on 17th Mar 1996 and after high winds, one walking along the road towards Swan Lake in Poole Park on 18th Jan 1987!!!

Elsewhere at least 1 Black-throated Diver was still in Parkstone Bay, Baiter, the Long-tailed Duck, 2 Slavoniain Grebe, 2 Black-necked Grebe and 2 Great Northern Diver were all off Jerry’s Point and a Red-throated Diver flew into the harbour late this afternoon. The Barnacle Goose was still on the Stilt Pools at Swineham, 3 Great Northern Diver and 2 Black-necked Grebe were off Middle Beach. Both White-tailed Eagles were in the Wareham Channel this morning

Purple Sandpiper and Snow Bunting – Hamworthy Beach – Clive Hargrave

Turnstones and Purple Sandpiper  – Hamworthy Beach – Clive Hargrave

The harbour was picture perfect today, with a layer of frost last almost lasted the entire duration of the day. The low, bright sun made viewing a bit tricky but once again there was so much to experience right the way around the harbour. This morning was our first bird boat of the year and was a targeted Year List ‘kick-starter’ trip. We couldn’t have got off to a better start to the year with 65 species logged from the trip and consisted of 1 Black-throated Diver off Baiter, 3 Great Northern Diver between Sandbanks and Brands Bay, 1 Long-tailed Duck, 1 Eider and 3 Black-necked Grebe off Jerry’s Point, 2 Sandwich Tern off Furzey, 1 Guillemot off Poole Quay, 1 Barnacle Goose and 4 Marsh Harrier at Swineham, 23 Spoonbill on Shipstal, RSPB Arne and 2 Goldeneye in the mouth of the Wareham Channel. Also, due to the Brownsea Lagoon being frozen over, all waders and wildfowl were displaced, trying to find suitable alternative roost sites with random Avocet flocks roosting in the Wareham Channel, Ower Bay and Fitzworth. Elsewhere there were 2 drake Pochard on Holme Lane GP, the Snow Bunting continued to please crowds in the bright organge winter sun at Hamworthy Beach, a Short-eared Owl was hunting over Arne Moors this afternoon, 2 Slavonian Grebe were off Jerry’s Point after sunrise and the 2 Purple Sandpiper were still on the Sandbanks groyns. A Great White Egret came into roost at Swineham this evening, a Merlin was at Lytchett Bay and both drake Mandarin Ducks were still in Poole Park.

Kingfisher – Lytchett Bay – Alison Copland

Not quite sure how it’s managed to go from one extreme to another in less than 24 hours, but yesterdays mild, gale force storm was replaced today by a frosty, still, minus set of temperatures. There were no new arrivals found lurking in the harbour anywhere which had been blown in by the storm, but the Snow Bunting on Hamworty Beach seemed to survive the waves which were battering it yesterday as it was feeding quite happily (and a lot drier) all day along the beach, moving around occasionally moving around.  It was much of the same elsewhere with the Long-tailed Duck, Slavoniain Grebe and Eider all off Jerry’s Point again with the Eider moving out into Shell Bay later, and around the Studland Penninsular there were 2 Black-necked Grebe, 11 Common Scoter and 3 Great Northern Diver off Middle Beach and 3 Great Northern Diver in Shell Bay. The 2 Purple Sandpiper were on the Sandbanks Groynes, in Middlebere 2 Spotted Redshank were roosting on the high tide with a Spoonbill and this afternoon a Black Redstart was feeding in a private Canford Cliffs garden. The Parkstone Bay/Baiter Black-throated Diver was showing at point blank range this morning off the footpath and in the PCW Drain this afternoon c15 Common Chiffchaff, 2 Blackcap (1 male and 1 female) and 1 Coot were enjoying the limited warmth of the sun. There were 25 Spoonbill at Shipstal Point, Arne and at Lytchett Fields there was 1 Water Pipit and 1 Spotted Redshank. 

Snow Bunting – Hamworthy Park – Mark Wright

Happy New Year everyone! What a way to start the year, with a near force 10 gale. Thankfully it tracked through fairly quickly, and although the rain persisted until this evening, the wind had largely moved through by mid-afternoon. This meant the Snow Bunting which went into hiding for a period of time this morning, finally came out again for patient birders who were looking to get their year lists off to a good start. Studland and Shell Bay were sheltered enough to check and logged 2 Great Northern Diver, 4 Black-necked Grebe, 1 Kittiwake, 7 Gannet and a moderate stream of Auks were heading west out in Poole Bay. At dawn a good count of 42 Red-breasted Merganser flew into the harbour along with 2 Great Northern Diver, 1 Black-throated Diver and 1 Long-tailed Duck. 

A rather bedraggled Snow Bunting compared to it’s pristine condition yesterday – Hamworthy Park – Peter Moore

A torrid new Year scene this morning – Hamworthy Park – Lucy McRobert