We had a great morning today in the Frome Valley. We started by looking for a whooper swan reported from High Tor, but unfortunately despite several mute swans being present, we couldn't find the whooper, but we did find several curlew and little egrets. We then went to Holmebridge, hoping to find the pink-footed goose seen from there yesterday, but immediately found the whooper swan there next to a mute swan! It was my first new British bird of the year, not a particularly rare one but a difficult one to find in Dorset. We then headed down the public footpath which ran alongside the flood plain, and found a great group of siskins in a small area of woodland there. As we crossed the floodplain, we spooked several snipe and two woodcock. There were thousands of thrushes on the plain, almost all fieldfares and redwings, and hundreds of lapwings. Through the scope, I found a group of greylag geese (somehow my first in Dorset!) and I felt confident that the pink-foot would be among them. As we got nearer, I found the pink-footed goose, my second new bird of the day. Despite it being a common bird in winter in the north of England, having always lived in the south this was a good new bird.
We then headed to Lytchett Bay. On the way, we came across a trio of waxwings in a roadside tree and watched them for ten minutes, before they flew off. The second waxwings we have found ourselves this year already! At Lytchett, we found several goldeneye and red-breasted mergansers, some brent geese, a shag and dozens of great crested grebes in the water. On the beach were several oystercatchers and turnstones and a single ringed plover. The best birds were, however, a pair of sandwich terns, a great bird to find in winter in the UK. We ended with a kingfisher which took off from a jetty and whizzed past us.
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