Arne 11th January

The weather was fairly mild and mostly sunny. Highlights were Spoonbill, Avocet, Hen Harrier and Peregrine.

There was quite a lot of activity around the car park at Arne with Great-spotted Woodpecker, Song Thrush and a few Redwing in the trees and Chaffinches, Great, Blue, Coal, Long-tailed and Marsh Tit coming to the feeders. We walked along the path through the fields where there were several Mistle Thrush, Redwing and Fieldfare feeding with Pied Wagtail and Goldfinch, while a Kestrel hovered overhead. There was very little in the woods on the way to the hide, just some Long-tailed Tit and a Green Woodpecker. From the hide there were many Shelduck with 4 Spoonbill on the water’s edge and quite a lot of Redshank, Teal, Wigeon and Black-tailed Godwit in the salt marshes, a few Pintail, Great-crested Grebe and Red-breasted Merganser on the distant water and some Sika Deer on the marshes too. We also had good views of a Goldcrest and some Blue Tit on the gorse bushes right in front of the hide. Walking back to the car park we stopped briefly at Shipstal Point. There were a few Great-crested Grebe and Red-breasted Merganser on the sea and a few Avocet flew past.
After lunch at a nearby pub, we went on to Middlebere. As we walked up the track to the hides we saw a couple of pairs of Bullfinch. We stopped to look over the reeds and had great views of a female Hen Harrier, spotted by Chris. It was great to see it wheeling over the reeds for a few minutes. The hide was pretty quiet, just a few Teal and Shelduck on the mudflats, but a Peregrine flew past to liven things up a little. Lastly a Spotted Redshank flew over the hide giving us the briefest of views.
Simon Curson