It is normally quite hard to find much to say this month, but first it seems proper to put in a plea for the birds. They do not hibernate like most other species, so in the very cold weather that we have had, they have to keep searching for seeds and insects, so if you have a suitable cat-free spot, do put out the crumbs of unwanted Christmas Cake, or a crushed sausage roll. Some specialised insect eaters like pied wagtail just cannot find enough, and starve to death in large numbers. There could be a similar story for our special Dartford warblers too.

My other, happier story is of a walk along the top of Holes Bay, just before Christmas. My wife and I were having a stroll down to PC World, via Upton House and the harbourside walk. There were some miserable peacocks, a lot of ducks, moorhens and coots on the pond, and not much to see from the hide except some distant swans and gulls. We walked along the path back to Poole, and came out to bright sunshine over the open water at the top of Holes Bay. And suddenly it was a bird watchers paradise. The far corner where we were heading was all white - some drift ice but mainly swans - and the mud flats near us were completely covered by flocks of birds - plovers, red and green shank, oyster catchers, gulls - and the shallow waters nearby had a good collection of assorted ducks. Possibly that area of the harbour was warmer and less frozen than elsewhere, but I certainly in many years of using that route have never seen such a rich assortment. As we walked round the swans started to sail out like a stately armada, making it fairly easy to count them, and I counted to 74. In this bird abundance, I saw no herons, and just one egret, but I still scratch my head about this great gathering of local swans.

Not much happening locally, but RSPB (Arne) and Durlston have a few events, and the next Bird Boats round the harbour are on 12th Jan and 19th Feb (01929 462383 for details)

Useful Numbers of organisations running tasks or walks:-

Other useful wildlife web sites for wildlife news in this area are:

• http://www.greenlink.co.uk/
• http://www.wildlifetrust.org.uk/dorset
• http://www.dorsetbutterflies.com

Prepared for Broadstone.net by
dudley.hull

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