Wow, what a change in temperature! Some woke up to snow this morning whilst others woke up to incredible flooding around the Wareham River valley’s which looks to be some of the highest flood waters we’ve seen in many years! Things are set to get colder too over the coming days, so we can’t get too carried away with thoughts of spring just yet.

Without doubt, todays highlight was 2 stunning Common Crane which flew over Middlebere around lunchtime, heading south and were then seen again later heading north over Wareham. They powered on through sadly, so we don’t know if they dropped down in the harbour or continued south. They could well reappear over the next few days. Also at Middlebere, White-tailed Eagle G801 put in an appearance where there were also 2 Marsh Harrier and a Spotted Redshank. A Red Kite passed Rock Lea viewpoint at Lytchett Bay and there were also 6 Spoonbill feeding off Otter Island in Lytchett Bay. At the PCW Drain a Siberian Chiffchaff was with 6+ Common Chiffchaff. A harbour entrance watch this AM was really productive with a good count of divers 7 flying in singly, with 6 Great Northern Diver and a Black-throated Diver. Plus, the regular 2 Great Northern Diver remained off Pilots Point, so a minimum 8 Great Northern Diver in total. Otherwise a party of 4 Egyptian Geese entered the harbour over Studland NR and 77 Shag, 5 Red-breasted Merganser, 2 Great Crested Grebe and an auk species all flew in just after sunrise.

Spoonbill – Lytchett Bay – Ian Ballam