Thanks to everyone who took part in our Big Poole Harbour Spring Bird Count yesterday. We’re now beginning to start going through eBird and Bird Track lists, emails and social media posts from counts carried out from the day. So, if you did brave the weather and manage to cover an area or site around the harbour, please send all your data asap so we can collate it and make sure it’s included within the final totals.

Sightings from today involved a Pied Flycatcher in a Poole Garden, a Spotted Flycatcher and Cuckoo along Slough Lane, Upton and 2 Little Ringed Plover on Lytchett Fields. Swifts were gathering over Poole Town with the stormy, unsettled  weather. There were 4 Marsh Harrier in the Wareham Channel and there were 3 Spoonbill on the Brownsea Lagoon with the first 10 Shelduck ducklings of the season. With such a high tide all day, not many waders were on Lytchett Fields until this evening when a single Redshank and winter plumage Sanderling appeared.

Also, last week during one of our ID courses at Morden Bog, the early start saw the group hear a series of Common Snipe calls, followed by a brief view of one sat in a tree, suggesting there could be birds on territory. We recently placed a recorder out there to see if we could log any drumming birds, and low and behold, a whole series of calls were logged, including several drumming and singing individuals too. This is great to have logged as they’re a massively under recorded breeding species here in Dorset.