A warm and muggy one today with no sign of the Melodious Warbler again today but the Quail finally started calling early evening in the south of the harbour.  One of todays highlights was flyover Honey Buzzard at Lytchett Bay. A species thats always a joy to see. Also, there were plenty more signs of autumn migration getting under way with 7 Little Ringed Plover (6 adults and 1 juv) at a private site in the west of the harbour as we finished up surveying for our breeding waders of Poole Harbour survey. Plus, at the same site there were 2 Green Sandpiper. Last night, 3 (newly arrived?) Green Sandpiper were calling loudly in the Frome Valley and there was another at Sunnyside Farm.

There are also already larger flocks of waders assembling in different areas with a flock of 95 Curlew in the Wareham Channel, plus a flock of 35 Redshank. Plus, a big group of 97 Mute Swan were also in the Wareham Channel. At Holme Lane there were 7 Egyptian Geese and another in the Wareham Channel and in Brands Bay there was 1 Whimbrel and 48 Curlew. Peregrines were of course present in Poole with the family hanging out mostly on the Asda building, but an adult was also on a pylon near Holton Lee feeding on a Black-headed Gull and others were also logged at Middlebere and Ballard. Nightjar are still putting on great shows with birds seemingly appearing to be active earlier than normal in recent nights. It could simply be the warm muggy evenings that are getting them active early. Some day time roosting Nightjar were also found at Holton Lee. Luke Johns from the DWT Brownsea team kindly informed us that after a really slow and poor start, Sandwich Tern breeding pairs are now up to 57. This is still way down to the normal 150-200 pairs, but considering it looked like there were going to be none for quite a while this is encouraging. Swift were seen entering a building, under some tiles near the Tatnum which is also good news because although we see plenty around the (Old) Town, we rarely hear of nesting sites.

Peregrine with Black-headed Gull – Holton Heath – Alison Copland