It’s the start of a new and different weather pattern this week having just enjoyed a week or so of northerly and easterly winds. It’s back to good old wet and windy south westerly’s again, but hey, we don’t mind as that can still produce new birds at this time of year.

Today we retrieved our sound recording gear from the roof of a high-rised set of flats on Old town Poole where it’s been deployed for 2 weeks recording night migrants. Having had a sneaky peak at some of the sound files the results are looking promising with good numbers of Redwing, Song Thrush and Blackbird calls present within the recording. When we begin finding nice recordings to post, we’ll host them on the sightings page over the next few days and weeks.

Sightings today were from all over the place, starting at Studland where there were 2 Black-necked Grebe and 2 Common Scoter in Studland Bay with another Common Scoter in the harbour mouth. Brent Geese were present with 17 flying in through the harbour mouth and 7 in Studland Bay. 14 Crossbill were logged over Middle Beach with 7 Lesser Redpoll. At Lytchett Fields a Jack Snipe was flushed and a Yellow-browed Warbler was in Upton CP. Between Jerry’s Point and Brands Bay there was just a single Red-breasted Merganser but 49 Great Crested Grebe. Out in Poole Bay 20+ Gannet were heading west. In Holes Bay today there were 40 Shoveler (a big increase), 28 Knot, 471 Black-tailed Godwit, 102 Dunlin, 82 Redshank, 2 Grey Plover and 1 Kingfisher. Along the Studland beaches there are plenty of birds taking advantage of the rotting seaweed which is crawling in flies, with Rock and Meadow Pipit, Stonechat, Skylark, Robins and Pied Wagtail all enjoying themselves early this AM.

Redshank, Knot and Grey Plover – Holes Bay north – Martin Adams