This morning we hosted our first Poole Town Urban Bird Walk initiative which will be taking place most Thursday mornings from now until the end of February (For full list of dates and info click here). The purpose is to highlight the diversity of Poole Town’s bird life during the winter, which is actually far greater than many may realise. Starting at our HQ on Poole quay we took the simple root along Poole Quay and up to Baiter, around the cycle path before then cutting into Poole Park and doing a full loop around the main boating lake. For a first walk we were treated to a whole host of great birds including 3 Kingfisher on the quay, 1 Sandwich Tern and 5 Ringed Plover along the marina sea wall, 10 Goldeneye, 7 Little Grebe, 3 Little Egret, 1 Mandarin, 3 Jay, 2 Goldcrest and 1 Kestrel in Poole Park plus c10 Turnstone, 3 Brent Geese and 5 Red-breasted Merganser at Baiter and we even jammed in on a Peregrine causing mayhem over Poole Park boating lake. Not bad for a two hour stroll in the centre of town. If you can make it to any of these walks over the winter, it would be great to see you. Elsewhere around the harbour the Cattle Egret flock peaked at 19 in the Nutcrack Lane field. At Lytchett Fields there were 2 Water Pipit on the approach pools and in Holes Bay north, large gatherings of Black-tailed Godwit and Avocet were wheeling around on the outskirts of the country park.

Turnstone – Baiter Beach – Alison Copland

Goldeneye – Poole Park – Alison Copland

Pintail – Holes Bay – John Pick

Black-tailed Godwit flock – Holes Bay north – John Pick