What a change in forecast, going from 13 degrees each day over the last few weeks, right down to 4 degrees this morning! Yesterdays clear weather saw male Osprey ‘511’ leave (finally) as there were no sightings of him logged anywhere today. The clear start did see some visible migration at the harbour mouth with 143 Fieldfare, 124 Redwing, 10 Song Thrush and 145 Jackdaws at sunrise followed by 359 Chaffinch, 346 Goldfinch, 54 Linnet, 11 Siskin, 6 Redpoll and only 1 Brambling. There were 2 Sandwich Tern off Shipstal Beach, RSPB Arne and 3 Red-breasted Merganser out in central harbour. Despite the cold NE breeze making viewing tricky in Studland Bay, a Slavonian Grebe was found and there were 8 Mandarin Duck on Holme Lane GP (3 female and 5 male), plus another 2 in Poole Park again. A Spotted Redshank was in Holes Bay N this afternoon with a single Cattle Egret in the field next to the car park and the White-tailed Eagle pair were observed hunting down a gull up on Ballard Down this afternoon. At Swineham 5 Marsh Harrier were off the point this morning.
Female Bearded Tit – Hatch Pond (Sunday 10th) – Ian Ballam
Finally some sun today, and a proper cold, crisp winter sunset this evening made for a picture postcard…
Find out moreHaving had zero hours of sun for over two weeks, we were at least treated to 5 minutes…
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