There was a bizarre occurrence today when a guided walk at Arne RSPB reserve quite literally bumped into a Great White Egret in the woods near the Shipstal Hide. It was during a period of heavy rain so it could be that the bird was sheltering in woods to keep dry, but the group was able to approach very close (within 30m) which is odd for Great White Egret as they’re normally very shy birds. It casually just wandered off into the woods and out onto the marsh and wasn’t seen again. Injured? Or just disliked the rain? Other than the usual suspects there wasn’t much else reported due to the rain. 17 Spoonbill were on Brownsea, Marsh Harriers were noted at Lytchett Bay and Middlebere. There are still a minimum of 2 Firecrest in the Arne car park and the ringtail Hen Harrier flew up the Middlebere Channel where there was also a reasonable passage of Fieldfare and Redwing overhead.

We have just uploaded our latest survey, carried out by and titled – Corvids of Poole Harbour. This is a revised study that Nick carried out back during the 2007/08 winter period but also incorporates his recent winter Magpie roost survey which was carried out during the 2014/15 winter period.

Read the survey here – CORVIDS OF POOLE HARBOUR

We’ve also recently been building relationships with another local landowner to allow us to put up more Barn Owl boxes. With some of the funds raised from our monthly field trip program we purchased two more Barn Owl boxes and put them up at a site near Ridge, just outside Wareham. The boxes were erected two weeks by Jason Fathers from Wildlife Windows and we’ll be checking them in the following weeks to see if any wandering birds have taken to them yet. Keeping fingers crossed!

Jason Fathers from Wildlife Windows and our new Barn Owl boxes