Picking Ellie up from church at 11.00am we drove straight down to Wareham and a quick look over the RSPB reserve at Bestwall. Whilst Ellie sat in the car and had a sandwich I walked down the small path to look over the water meadows. Fortunately, the small flock of Eurasion White-fronted Geese that had been present for the past few days were still showing and I picked out half a dozen birds. There were also a few Greylag Geese about and on a small pool at pair of Shovelers. As I walked back to the car a Siskin flew in to a small tree.
Leaving Wareham we then drove down to Arne and parked. We had our picnic lunch and then took a walk through the reserve and out to Shipstal Point. There were plenty of common woodland birds about and we had soon seen Marsh Tit and Lesser Redpoll amongst others. Out on the water there were several Red-breasted Mergansers and Goldeneye and looking out over the salt marsh there were eight Spoonbills as well as several hundred Shelduck and Curlew and smaller numbers of Avocet and Redshank.
After completing the circular walk, seeing a couple of Mistle Thrushes in one of the large fields, we got back to the car and I left Ellie to read the paper whilst I took a walk around Coombe Heath. I was hoping to see the wintering Great Grey Shrike but after a forty minute search I gave up. There were loads of birds feeding in the Middlebeare channel (including a pair of Black Swans). A large flock of Dark-bellied Brent Geese contained two Pale-bellied Brent Geese. On the heath there were a few Meadow Pipits flying about. So having missed a few good birds at Arne during the afternoon I was in a bit of a stroppy mood when I got back to the car, but we had a lovely afternoon out and about in some wonderful weather.
UK list for 2011 now at 118 species.
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