Today saw Birds of Poole Harbour host an RSPB bird boat which left Poole Quay at 10:30am and over 100 keen members of the public enjoyed the trip. Before I talk about that, I’ll just mention two other good birds found in the harbour today. Firstly, the Great Grey Shrike (that was originally found yesterday) was again on Godlingston Heath but was also seen right on the boarder of Greenlands too. Potentially, this bird may have been around all winter as this is a largely under-watched area of the harbour, and well done to the people that found it. Secondly, the redhead Smew that was found in Holes Bay a few weeks ago was back again today and spent most of the day hanging around the railway bridge the separates Holes Bay north and south. Back to todays boat trip where we started off by landing on Brownsea then followed by a tour of the harbour. The lagoon was looking great (as usual) with 3 Spoonbill, 3 Spotted Redshank, 10+ Greenshank, 200+ Avocet, 100+ Bar-tailed Godwit, 100+ Black-tailed Godwit, plus numerous Dunlin, Grey Plover and the odd Turnstone, Knot and Snipe. Out on the water Goldeneye, Red-breasted Merganser and Great Crested Grebe were plentiful and a Marsh Harrier spooked a couple of hundred Brent Geese in Middlebere. A Kingfisher also welcomed us on the Brownsea Quay. If you want to witness the winter spectacle of the Brownsea Lagoon, then the National Trust open the island at weekends starting from February 7th 2015. Marsh and Hen Harriers were noted in Middlebere and Brands Bay. Off the Houseboats in Bramble Bush Bay 5 Black-necked Grebe were feeding and a Slavonian Grebe was feeding in the Brownsea Channel yesterday.
This morning heralded the first ‘semi-decent’ winter thrush arrival of the season with Redwing, Blackbird and Song Thrush…
Find out moreBlimey, the temperature certainly ‘dipped’ today. It felt like we were all needing to moult into our own…
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