Fog and yet more precipitation set in through the day, putting a dampener on any potential weekend birding plans. That said, the few hours of dry weather at dawn was enough to run a Stour Ringing Group winter ringing project session visit near Arne featuring a stunning control of a Dutch-ringed and satellite tagged Kestrel(!). Check out the below map tracking the movement of the bird dispersing along the coast and crossing the channel before settling in Poole Harbour for the winter. Otherwise very little reported across the harbour, with a lone Goshawk over Wareham Causeway high towards Swineham at midday and Yellowhammer over Arable Field, Lytchett Bay the only other notable records.

Surprised by this movement? You might be fascinated to learn that Kestrel are actually well documented as partial, passage and winter migrants in UK. The BTO host an excellent summary of all Kestrel that have been ringed or recovered in Britain & Ireland.

Dutch-ringed Kestrel movement since last summer, arriving in the UK during November 2025

A colossal high tide coincided with today’s Winter Safari Cruise. We love to visit Brownsea Lagoon at high water to work through the roosting waders, and today an immature Peregrine had the same idea! After watching the raptor relentlessly chase down roosting birds, we tracked aross to the Middlebere Channel and enjoyed prolonged flight views of two adult White-tailed Eagle. Best of the rest during the trip included, one Black-necked Grebe at Arne Lake, nine Great Northern Diver across the North Channel, South Deep, Middle Mud and Hutchins, plus the two wintering Sandwich Tern off Baiter Park. Red Kite, Sparrowhawk, Kestrel and Buzzard also made it on to the boat list for this morning, making for an excellent raptor-fest. Elsewhere across the harbour, the Holes Bay Little Gull was recorded at PC World Drain, along with the supporting cast of female Goosander and Spotted Redshank, while a Green Sandpiper was observed at Arne Moors.

Dunlin high tide roost with Ringed Plover (centre), Poole Quay Breakwater © Joe Parker

Adult winter Little Gull, Holes Bay © Joe Parker

Spotted Redshank, Holes Bay © Joe Parker

A much better day for getting out birding compared to yesterday! 1 Purple Sandpiper was sat on the groyne off Sandbanks beach, further along from it’s usual hangout near the Haven Hotel. Also present was 1 colour-ringed Sanderling, it will be interesting to find out the origin of this bird once we hear back! The 10 Glossy Ibis were once again feeding in the field behind Wareham rugby club, alongside 96 Curlew. 1 Goosander, viewed from the PCW drain, and 1 Little Gull were still present in Holes Bay. A lunchtime walk along Baiter Park, offered up 2 Great Northern Diver and 69 Dark-bellied Brent Geese feeding on the fields including sat-tagged bird ‘SY.’ The high tide wader roost was present on the rocks at Poole Quay with 260 Dunlin and 6 Ringed Plover counted. Over at Hatch Pond there were 325 Black-tailed Godwit flying over heading south, as well as 1 Little Grebe and 2 Raven. 62 Cattle Egret were on Wareham Common this morning, with other birds of note including 1 Mediterranean Gull flying east.

Colour-ringed Sanderling – Mick Brooks – Sandbanks

Pretty grim weather for any birders out there today, with very limited sightings as expected! Amongst the stormy weather were 3 Kittiwake seen from Branksome Chine this morning. If you regularly read our sightings page, you may have seen us post about a BTO metal ringed Black-headed Gull, seen from Baiter Park Car Park, which was originally ringed as an adult in Dec 2011. Well today we got the data back from the BTO and turns out it was ringed at Poole Park, a stunning movement of 2km! Joking aside, if you ever see a ringed bird when out birding, try your best to read it, and submit to the BTO. It’s all really important data, to enable us to find out more about a whole range of aspects of bird ecology and behaviour including longevity, site fidelity, and movements.

Metal ringed Black-headed Gull, Baiter Park 16 Feb © Joe Parker

Today’s Young Birders ID Course (a project kindly supported by the Cameron Bespolka Trust) capitalised on the excellent low tide this afternoon, enjoying close views of three Slavonian Grebe, eight Black-necked Grebe, three Great Northern Diver, 38 Sanderling, Dartford Warbler and Firecrest, plus a stunning carpet of Dark-bellied Brent Goose, Wigeon, Teal and Dunlin along the southern mudflats. Find out more about our community for like-minded young conservationists and wildlife-lovers here.

Holes Bay was also chock-a-block with birds at low tide! The videos below were captured by one of our team this afternoon. Elsewhere, Crossbill were logged at Wareham Forest and Jerry’s Point. The fringes of the recording area clinched three Goosander west of Holmebridge, while a Spotted Redshank was recorded at Lytchett Fields, along with 97 Common Redshank, 6 Greenshank and a Green Sandpiper. And although they avoided us during the ID Course, two White-tailed Eagle were seen near Brands Bay earlier in the day.

Young Birders ID Course – exploring Jerry’s Point and Redhorn Quay

The stiff westerlies built throughout the day with seemingly few birders venturing out. A lunch break birding jaunt around Baiter Park included a Pale-bellied Brent Goose in with 121 ‘Dark-bellies’. This less-frequently encountered race of Brent Goose breeds in e. North American Arctic and n. Greenland, predominantly wintering in e. USA and Ireland. ‘SY’ the satellite-tagged Dark-bellied Brent Goose continues to kick around the harbour, feeding along the shoreline. The Baiter car park Black-headed Gull flock also featured a BTO metal ringed individual originally ringed as an adult in Dec 2011, awaiting details to find out where in the UK it has come from…

Elsewhere, a flying visit to Whitley Lake logged 24 Bar-tailed Godwit, 33 Sanderling and a couple of Mediterranean Gull. Middlebere enjoyed a raptor-fest, clocking up Goshawk, Sparrowhawk and a male Merlin by 11AM. Four Black-necked Grebe still present off Jerry’s Point, with a further three out in Studland Bay along with a Slavonian Grebe off Knoll Beach. Our team also led a Winter Birding ID Course across Studland this afternoon, starting at Shell Bay with two Great Northern Diver, followed by a further ‘GND’, three Black-necked Grebe, c.200 Dunlin and two Greenshank at Jerry’s Point. The course concluded at Brand’s Bay which boasted two White-tailed Eagle!

Pale-bellied Brent Goose (centre) in with Dark-bellied flock © Joe Parker 

Apologies for our website being down the last couple of days due to technical issues. Thankfully it’s now back up and running and so we are able to resume sightings as normal.

A mixed day in the harbour with some monstrous downpours making our wetland bird survey this afternoon difficult, before opening up in to a stunning evening. Despite the weather there were large numbers of waders on the low tide this afternoon with enormous numbers of Black-tailed Godwit, almost entirely in Holes Bay with 5236 counted. Counts of barely double figures could be managed in other classic areas like Lytchett Bay and the Wareham Channel. The 1 Goosander and 1 Little Gull were still in Holes Bay North East. In Brands Bay there were 660 Dunlin and 5 Knot, along with 2 White-tailed Eagles. Off Jerry’s Point there were 3 Great Northern Diver, 4 Black-necked Grebe and 3 Slavonian Grebe. From Middle Beach, Studland there were 1 Great Northern Diver, 3 Black-necked Grebe and 1 Common Scoter. In the Wareham Channel this afternoon from our low tide cruise there were 1 Spoonbill, 5 Marsh Harrier, 1 Hen Harrier, c200 Avocet, c1000 Dunlin, c10 Knot and 2 Greenshank. 1 Spoonbill was also in the Middlebere Channel and 3 were off Goathorn. 10 Glossy Ibis were still in North Bestwall paddocks at Swineham.

We also had some other great news this weekend! In 2022 the first Osprey nest in 180 years in Southern England was established at Careys Secret Garden as a result of our Poole Harbour Osprey translocation. The first chick to fledge for 180 years was a female we ringed ‘5H1’.
Last year she herself established her own nest up near the Rutland area and raised 3 chicks including 8R3, which our team members Brittany Maxted and Sam Ryde ringed last summer. Well, a few days ago 8R3 was seen in the Gambia by Osprey surveyor Fansu Bojang. Great to see 3rd generation Ospreys now starting to thrive as a result of the project.

2nd calendar year Osprey 8R3-  The Gambia – Fansu Bojang

Constant monitoring provides such a great insight in to how valuable and important areas are, and with thanks to a committed group of watchers, Holes Bay is proving to be a vitally important site for a whole range of species. Gratitude and kudos to the likes of Martin Adams, Steve Smith and Nick Woods who have been counting the waders and wildfowl in Holes Bay, pretty much daily this winter and today logged 286 Pintail and 226 Shoveler NW which signal nationally significant numbers, not to mention the internationally important total of 4786 Icelandic Black-tailed Godwit. This is a phenomenal total and represents roughly 11-12% of the current UK over-wintering population, and 9-10% of the current global population……all in Holes Bay!!!! Not bad for a site that was almost too toxic to walk past a few decades ago.

Out in Studland Bay there were 3 Common Scoter and 3 Black-necked Grebe, Wareham Common held 31 Cattle Egret and 6 Cirl Bunting were feeding out toward Old Harry. This morning, one of the PCW drain Siberian Chiffchaff was calling and singing quite a bit when the sun came out, the Ruff was in Holes Bay NW again, with the Little Gull still in the NE sector and at Poole Park the Pochard was still on the main boating lake and the drake Mandarin was still on the smaller lake.

Carpets of Black-tailed Godwit – Holes Bay – Martin Adams