It was another busy day, but nowhere near as beautiful as yesterday. Best from across the harbour included 4 Long-tailed Duck, 2 Slavonian Grebe, 2 Common Scoter, 3 Great Northern Diver and 2 Black-necked Grebe off Jerry’s Point. Off Old Harry a Fulmar flew by and there were c200 auk’s (50/50 split between Guillemot and Razorbill), c30 Kittiwake, c40 Gannet, 1 Great Northern Diver, 1 Red-throated Diver and 3 diver sp, 2 Peregrine and 2 Shoveler. In the arable field leading along to Old Harry there were 6 Yellowhammer in the field along with 32 Skylark that were flushed by a Sparrowhawk. At Swineham there was an excellent count of 22 Pochard which is a harbour high count by quite some way in recent years. It also highlights that many duck responded to yesterdays cold weather and that Smew should be on peoples radars if out looking in Holes Bay, off Baiter, at Poole Park or at Swineham. A ringtail Hen Harrier was seen over Keysworth this afternoon with a Marsh Harrier and a Merlin was hunting from the Middlebere post at dusk and 3 Sandwich Tern were off Shore Road.

17 of the 22 Pochard that were at Swineham today – Trevor Warwick

First of all, Happy New Year to everyone. We hope that you’re all safe and well. We’ve decided we’re going to focus purely on positive conservation stories and projects this year, rebuilding our people engagement work when and where we can, re-focusing and hopefully making 2021 one of the best years in the charities history. Today couldn’t have got the year off to a better start with an amazing range of birds right across the harbour as well as a stunning wintery scene from sunrise until about midday. Starting in Poole at the PCW Drain 3 Chiffchaff, 1 Cetti’s Warbler and a Kingfisher were logged and in Holes Bay NW where 40+ Knot were roosting plus 110 Oystercatcher along the Railway embankment and 1 Goldeneye in the SE sector. At Shell Bay there were 3 Great Northern Diver and off Middle Beach 2 Common Scoter, 14 Black-necked Grebe, 1 Great Northern Diver. Off Jerry’s Point there were 2 Slavonian Grebe 1 Razorbill, 2 Great Northern Diver and 3 Black-necked Grebe and off Redhorn 1 Long-tailed Duck, 4 Scaup, 1 Great Northern Diver and in Brands Bay a Pochard (very rare here) circled the bay before heading north and 40+ Shoveler (scarce here) were settled with c80 Pintail. A Great White Egret flew up and then down the Piddle Valley mid-morning and a Cattle Egret flew over Lytchett Bay. At Old Harry a Black Redstart was on the top on the ridge and 1 Brambling, 14 Yellowhammer and c25 Chaffinch were in a mixed seed crop field at the base of Old Harry. There seemed to have been an arrival of winter thrushes too with higher than recent totals of Redwing around the area including urban Poole gardens and 9 Fieldfare were outside the Brands Bay hide.

Slavonian Grebe – Jerry’s Point – Brittany Maxted

There was more frost on the ground this AM but it sadly didn’t deliver very much in terms of anything new. There were 4 Goldeneye again in Holes Bay SE and decent numbers of Black-tailed Godwit (785+), Avocet (253), Shoveler, Teal, Wigeon, 3 Kingfisher and 8 Little Grebe in Holes Bay NE. The Great White Egret was feeding along the River Corfe and off Middle Beach there were 7 Black-necked Grebe. In Lytchett Bay there were 80+ Avocet, 6 Little Grebe and plenty of Redshank and a Chiffchaff was at Lytchett Fields. At Arne there were 24 Spoonbill and 3 Marsh Harrier seen. Not many open water species were reported but there seems to be an arrival of new birds coming in with Velvet Scoter, 3 Slavonian Grebe and 3 Long-tailed Duck around the Fleet in the Weymouth area.

Common Chiffchaff – Lytchett Bay – Ian Ballam

We’re loving this cold weather as it keeps delivering good birds, with todays best bird not actually being seen today though. News reached us today that on Dec 20^th a Bittern was seen in front of the viewing screen at Lytchett Bay which is the first for the bay in quite a while and certainly one of only a handful of records from the harbour over the last several years. Birds from today at Lytchett Bay included 2 Cattle Egret over the bay at dusk heading to the Holes Bay roost, also 1 Merlin, 1 Peregrine, 1 Yellow-legged Gull and 5 Spoonbill. At Swineham there was a Jack Snipe c100 Lapwing, 2 Egyptian Geese, 5 Cetti’s Warbler, 1 Marsh Harrier, 2 Water Rail and 1 Chiffchaff. In Holes Bay SE there were 3 Goldeneye with another 1 on Poole Park Lake. Off Jerry’s Point/Brands Bay there were 2 Great Northern Diver, 3 Scaup, 1 Common Scoter, 1 Black-necked Grebe, 23 Sanderling, 1200 Dunlin, 30 Grey Plover, 10 Knot, 10 Bar-tailed Godwit and 3 Grey Plover. In Middlebere 3 Bearded Tit were seen which are a rare find there and in the Middlebere Channel there were 4 Spotted Redshank, 26 Curlew, 550 Avocet, 1 ringtail Hen Harrier and 120 Lapwing. At Littlesea, Studland the Great White Egret flew into roost at dusk and a Woodcock was seen.

Bullfinch – Swineham – Peter Moore

Today was another excellent day for birding around the harbour with perfect conditions and even a sprinkling of snow on the ground at dawn for some people. Most focus was given to the Studland area which returned a decent run of birds including the 4 Scaup off Redhorn along with 3 Great Northern Diver, 1 Long-tailed Duck, 11 Goldeneye and 4 Common Scoter. In Shell Bay there were 3 Great Northern Diver and on the beach 43 Grey Plover and 23 Ringed Plover were roosting. Out in Studland bay there were 6 Black-necked Grebe, 1 Red-throated Diver, 5 Common Scoter and a small passage of Auks, Kittiwake and Gannet heading west past Old Harry, as well as a couple of Lapwing heading east way out in Studland Bay suggesting a possible cold weather movement from further north. Out off Shipstal Point, Arne there were 9 Black-necked Grebe, 22 Spoonbill and 11 Goldeneye. A Slavonian Grebe was off Furzey Island and at Lytchett Fields there were 4 Green Sandpiper, 1 Yellow-legged Gull and 1 Marsh Harrier with another 3 Marsh Harrier in the Wareham Channel. The Ring-billed Gull was looked for during the afternoon but wasn’t seen.

Grey Plover roosting on Shell Beach, Studland

An excellent list of species today from right across the harbour. Storm Bella certainly delivered at different sites starting out in Poole Bay where there were 400-500 auk (50/50 Guillemot and Razorbill) passing west, as well as c80 Kittiwake, c100 Gannet, 8 Great Northern Diver, 2 Red-throated Diver, 1 (poss 2) Black-throated Diver, 2 Common Scoter, 1 Avocet, 4 Great Crested Grebe and 22 Black-tailed Godwit all west. At the harbour entrance a Long-tailed DUCK entered the harbour mouth at dawn along with 5 Great Northern Diver, 85 Shag and 385 Black-tailed Godwit. At Lytchett Bay the Ring-billed Gull came into roost again at 14:15 before moving towards the Wareham Channel, plus a Pochard settled in the bay (rare here) at dawn, 4 Spoonbill and 2 Cattle Egret flew over at dusk heading towards the Holes Bay egret roost. Around the Studland peninsular there were 4 Great Northern Diver, 17 Black-necked Grebe and 6 Common Scoter off Knoll Beach, and around Brands Bay there were 41 Great Crested Grebe, 10 Black-necked Grebe, 71 Red-breasted Merganser, 3 Scaup, 21 Goldeneye and 1 Common Scoter. Finally, the lone Purple Sandpiper at Sandbanks has now found a friend which is good news!

Great Northern Diver – Shell Bay 

Merry Christmas from all of us here at Birds of Poole Harbour. It’s been a crazy year, one that I’m sure many of us will choose to forget. However, through the gloom we saw big advances in the Poole Harbour Osprey project with female Osprey CJ7 settling on a nest platform all spring and entertaining the masses through lockdown and we really can not wait to see what 2021 delivers…..with or without covid in our lives. As a charity we thrive on meeting like-minded nature and bird enthusiasts that we can share experiences with, either on our boat trips, at pop up events, on guided walks and even online. 2020 has hampered at lot of our people engagement work but we promise to still deliver whereever we can in what ever way we can next year and we can’t wait to see you all out in the field too in the very near future.

So, from all of us here at BoPH, thanks as always for all your kind support over the year(s), it really does mean so much to us. We hope you all manage to try and have some form of Merry Christmas and bird filled 2021 x

A cold and christmasy Bramble Bush Bay

Well, the big day is finally here and what a year it’s been! Todays finally produced some sunshine after what seemed like months of rain, but todays northerly blow certainly made it feel like a bleak mid winter. There was a nice selection from around the harbour with 6+ Spoonbill finally dropping into Holes Bay, a site they used to be fairly regular at. It always tends to be when the temperature drops that Spoonbill forage in Holes Bay NE as the temperature tends to be a bit warmer there and a pair of Red-breasted Merganser were in the SE section. Off Jerry’s Point there were 3 Black-necked Grebe, 4 Scaup and 2 Great Northern Diver. From Middle Beach, Studland, despite the wind a single Black-necked Grebe was found and 3 Ring-necked Parakeets were in Studland Village. Holes Bay had 171 Avocet, 1000+ Wigeon, 621 Black-tailed Godwit and 54 Shoveler as well as good numbers of other regular Holes Bay species. Firecrests were at Swineham, Arne, Holme Lane and Knoll Beach.

Firecrest – Swineham – Peter Moore