Despite the cold, overcast start to the day, by lunchtime the harbour was basking in glorious spring sunshine which saw an instant return to good numbers of butterfly being on the wing. The sun also delivered another two new firsts for the year in the form of a Swallow over Wareham Common and a singing Willow Warbler in the PCW Drain. With the high pressure due to set in over the next couple of days, no doubt more new more will be arriving. Other than todays newbies it was much of the same including the Forster’s Tern on the Brownsea Lagoon, the adult Little Gull in Lytchett Bay and the 3 Glossy Ibis on Wareham Common. Finally, a nice late addition to todays sightings was a dusk find of a White-spotted Bluethroat at Swineham. This is just the 8th Poole Harbour record, and a hard bird to catch up with. White-spotted Bluethroat is the southern European sub-species which tends to migrate earlier in the spring (March to April), where as the red-spotted sub-species is the Northern European equivalent and they tend to be much later in the spring. Both are rare visitors to the UK.

White-spotted Bluethroat – Swineham – Peter Moore