With various local scarcities looking set to linger across the turn of the year, I spent the last hour of New Year's Eve (and the first few hours of New Year's Day) on the Guinness Zero to keep my head reasonably clear for an early(ish) start on the 2026 non-motorised yearlist. Having nearly lost toes to frostbite the day before, for footwear I went with three pairs of socks and insulated Muckboots - an inelegant but effective solution, it turned out, to the challenge of staying warm on the bike.
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| White-fronted Goose, Ridge, 1st January |
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| White-fronted Goose, Ridge, 1st January |
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| White-fronted Goose (with Greylag and Canada), Ridge, 1st January |
First stop was going to be a wet field at the north end of Wareham favoured by a flock of Glossy Ibis but I bumped into local birders
en route who broke the news they had just flown from there so I did a 180 and implemented plan B. This meant my first stop was in fact the now famous goose-field at Ridge which had played host to 6 species in the preceding days. There were just three present early on 1st January but one of them was White-fronted, a difficult bird for a Dorset yearlist. The Tundra Bean Geese which I saw here on Boxing Day had not been seen for a few days and the nearest 'Beans' were near Dorchester 16 miles to the west - although well within my range this didn't fit with my plan to head east to Studland, and I figured they would linger long enough for me to head in that direction before returning to work on 5th January so I put that species from my mind for the day.
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| Fieldfare, Greenlands Farm, 1st January |
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| Fieldfare, Greenlands Farm, 1st January |
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| Crossbill, Rempstone Forest, 1st January |
After a few photos of the White-fronts it was time to move on: Studland - where I had seen a pair of Smew the previous afternoon - was beckoning. The absence of news from the peninsula was a bit of concern but with New Year birdracers being cagey about sharing what they had seen, I concluded that this didn't necessarily mean the Smew weren't present. So I headed straight there, pausing only briefly to photograph a singing Crossbill atop a pine in the middle of Rempstone Forest and a flock of Fieldfare at Greenlands Farm. On arrival at the tip of Redhorn Point a small crowd had been searching in vain for the 'White Nun' and his redhead partner, but this being the first day of the new listing year there were plenty of other species to look for so I pulled my new lightweight tripod, telescope, a camping stool and picnic blanket out of my seemingly bottomless panniers, poured scalding tea from the Thermos I got for Christmas, and made myself comfortable.
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| Greenshank, Redhorn Point, 1st January |
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| Dunlin, Redhorn Point, 1st January |
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| Curlew Sandpiper, Redhorn Point, 1st January |
A decent list of waterbirds, including Great Northern Diver, Goldeneye, Slavonian and Black-necked Grebe was assembled from the luxury of the camping stool but there was no sign of the Smew or the drake Scaup which had shown well from the same spot the previous day. At the end of Redhorn Point there is not a lot of cover - basically a small shrub of some description and an even smaller gorse bush - so the sighting of the day was arguably a Dartford Warbler which had chosen this chilliest of days to hop between the two, occasionally feeding on the grass nearby!
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| Slavonian Grebe, Redhorn Point, 1st January |
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| Red-breasted Merganser, Redhorn Point, 1st January |
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| Oystercatcher, Redhorn Point, 1st January |
After a good few hours it was clear that the Smew were not coming back, and it also seemed doubtful that the Scaup would show its face - at least I wasn't prepared to spend the whole afternoon waiting to see if it did, especially as a new (or enlarged?) flock of Tundra Beans had been discovered just a couple of miles west of home in Wareham, and a Barnacle Goose had re-appeared with the White-fronts back at Ridge where I started the day.
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| White-tailed Eagle from local reintroduction scheme, Redhorn Point, 1st January |
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White-tailed Eagle from local reintroduction scheme, Redhorn Point, 1st January
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White-tailed Eagle from local reintroduction scheme, Redhorn Point, 1st January
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When I reached my allotted cut off time I packed up the voluminous panniers and prepared for the 12 mile slog back west to the Bean Goose site. It was hard work carrying all the luggage plus the weight of Christmas over-indulgence which hung around my waist like a lead-lined guilty conscience, and I began to doubt the choice of wellies, despite their thermal properties, for pedal pushing. But I'm nothing if not obsessed so I persevered, rejoining the main road at Corfe Castle, cutting the corner into Holme Lane to avoid the climb up to Worgret Heath, ploughing through the (surprisingly deep!) ford at East Holme and breezing past my pal Steve Smith at Holmebridge before arriving at the Bean field around 1500.
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| Tundra Bean Geese, East Holme, 1st January |
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| Tundra Bean Goose, East Holme, 1st January |
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| Tundra Bean Geese, East Holme, 1st January |
The Beans were easily located mooching about with Mute Swans and Egyptian Geese. If White-front is a difficult bird for a Dorset yearlist, Bean Goose is even harder, so this was a another small moment of triumph. Yet there was no time to celebrate as the Barnacle Goose back at Ridge offered the unlikely prospect of a 6-species-of-goose day in Dorset. I headed there via the Wareham bypass, passing a roadside flock on Cattle Egret on the way but checking known haunts of the Glossy Ibis flock without success. With dusk approaching I arrived to find the goose field at Ridge disappointingly
sans Barnacle. Fortunately another local birder was on hand to point it out in a neighbouring field, partly obscured behind a line of trees.
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| Great White Egret, Wareham by-pass, 1st January |
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| Cattle Egret, Worgret Manor, 1st January |
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| Barnacle Goose, Ridge, 1st January |
With the last of the 6 goose species in the bag the pressure was off and I could roll slowly back around the bypass for one last look for the Ibis. Once again they were not playing ball but a Great White Egret on the Frome Valley floodplain made the detour worthwhile. Although my total for the day was only about 60 species, it had still been a good day for the yearlist - whilst the 3 species of Egret would have eventually made their way on to the list, any more than 3 species of goose is a bonus for a yearlist in these parts, so to get 6 on New Year's Day, all within a few miles of home, was exceptional.
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| White-fronted Geese, Ridge, 1st January |
