When most of the county seemed to have a decent fall of common migrants, none were really reported from around the Poole Harbour area. Is that because they weren’t there or was it because they just weren’t reported? A few Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff, Swallow and Sand Martin were recorded but not much else. Highlights though included a Little Tern in the Wareham Channel mid morning and the two Cattle Egret that were in the Frome Valley were back again about 300m east of Holmebridge. The Lesser Yellowlegs was on Lytchett Fields mid morning with the springs first Common Sandpiper. A Red Kite drifted low over Upton and on the tall part of the Asda building in Poole a male and female Peregrine were roosting. On the Brownsea Lagoon 3 Spotted Redshank were still at the southern end with 11 Avocet, summer plumaged Black-tailed Godwit, 12 Knot and 15 Bar-tailed Godwit. Our first night recording session from our listening station in Old Town Poole produced only 2 Ringed Plover, 1 Moorhen and 1 Coot. Talking of night sounds, there was potentially a big passage of Coot over Lytchett Bay on the night of April 8^th and 9^th with 53 calls recorded by Nick Hull. Whether this was just a handful of birds or something a bit more substantial is yet to be decided but the sheer number of calls suggests something interesting was going on considering this is a pretty rare bird for Lytchett Bay. 

 Moorhen & Coot – Calls of night time migrants – Old Town Poole Listening Station – 12/04/17 @ 22: 30