After yesterday’s no-show, there were 2 Long-tailed Duck seen off Furzey Island today from Jerry’s Point, along with great total of 4 Great Northern Diver,  4 Scaup, 31 Red-breasted Merganser, 7 Goldeneye, 3 Common Scoter, and 1 Black-necked Grebe. 113 Avocet were present in Holes Bay. From Middlebere, 1 Marsh Harrier and a flock of 10 Crossbill were reported.

Common Scoter – Jerry’s Point – Garry Hayman

Jerry’s Point failed to produce a Long-tailed Duck, however 4 Scaup, 5 Common Scoter and 5 Great Northern Diver maintained the quality. Holes Bay held 1306 Wigeon, 173 Teal, 38 Shoveler, 28 Pintail, 41 Shelduck in North and SE. Over 500 Black-tailed Godwit were logged from the Stone Bench in fading light along with mimimum counts of 200 Dunlin, 100 Redshank, 90 Avocet, 22 Knot and 20 Curlew. Turlin Moor LNR, Lytchett Bay featured 54 Brent Goose, 5 Canada Goose, 17 Mute Swan, 20 Shelduck, 6 Gadwall, 250 Wigeon, Mallard 13, 100 Teal, 2 Great Crested Grebe, 1 Water Rail, 44 Avocet, 75 Oystercatcher, 100 Lapwing, 40 Curlew, 160 Black-tailed Godwit, 30 Dunlin, 3 Greenshank, 60 Redshank and 1 Kingfisher.

Kingfisher – Holton Pools – Tony Furnell (Please note, Holton Lee is closed to the public)

Another fine, calm day which made watching the open water areas of the harbour pretty easy. Off Jerry’s Point the 2 Long-tailed Duck were still present along with 4 Scaup, 4 Common Scoter, 5 Great Northern Diver, 6 Black-necked Grebe, 11 Goldeneye plus 27 Ringed Plover, 3 Sanderling, 7 Grey Plover and c450 Dunlin and 1 Great White Egret. In Holes Bay several Rock Pipit were present including what looked to be a littoralis Scandinavian Rock Pipit, being much paler and ‘cleaner’ than our British Rock Pipits. At Lytchett Bay another Water Pipit was colour-ringed as part of a national scheme to monitor their movements within the UK and potentially back to their breeding grounds. In Holes Bay NE a Green Sandpiper seems to have taken up winter residence which is a decent over-wintering bird for Holes Bay.

Plus, the results for our Big Poole Harbour Bird Count are in. On October 25^th many of you got out and made your sightings count by submitting them to us for the Big Poole Harbour Bird Count. Brittany, from our BoPH team has been working on the data results website which is now launched and ready to go. You can look at info for different species and sites, compare data from the winter Big Bird count, plus, we’ll be hosting more moving forward with the next being in January 2021 on the 10^th….more info to follow soon. In the mean time, you can explore the data HERE.

Finally, we’ve been contacted by numerous people regarding our binocular sales and the HQ being closed, and although we hope to be re-open for December weekends, we’ve decided that we would also move our binocular and telescope sales online to expand our service and offer you the chance to purchase our ‘Cruelty Free Range’ remotely. So, if you know anyone that’s been good this year and deserves something extra then please visit our new ONLINE SHOP HERE.

Scandinavian Rock Pipit – Holes Bay – Alison Copland

It was a great morning to be out today with the Poole Harbour WeBS counters out in force covering the whole harbour at 9:30am. The calm conditions really helped and good totals of multiple species were logged with highlights consisting of 3 Long-tailed Duck (2 off Jerry’s Point and 1 near Newton Bay), 8 Great Northern Diver, mostly off Jerry’s Point, 13 Goldeneye scattered across the harbour, 26 Black-necked Grebe (11 Middle Beach, 7 Jerry’s Point, 4 Shell Bay and 4 Central Harbour), 4 Scaup in Brands Bay, 6 Common Scoter (3 off Jerry’s Point and 3 off Middle Beach, 18 Spoonbill in Middlebere along with 100+ Great Crested Grebe, 80+ Red-breasted Merganser, 1 Goosander in Lytchett Bay and excellent totals of regular over-wintering waders and wildfowl. Additional bonuses included 2 Reeve’s Pheasant near Norden Sewage works (most likely recent releases), 2 Water Pipit at Lytchett Fields, 1 Great White Egret in Brands Bay, 4 Marsh Harrier in the Wareham Channel, a ringtail Hen Harrier at Morden Bog and 2 Merlin (1 Middlebere, 1 Slepe). At Swineham a Barnacle Goose was hiding in amongst the many Canada Geese and on the GP were 3 Pochard. 

It was great to see the harbour so calm this morning, allowing for a full area count to be conducted across Brands Bay, South Deep and off Jerry’s Point. The returns were excellent with 2 Long-tailed Duck off Furzey Island, also 4 Scaup, 4 Great Northern Diver, 2 Common Scoter, 2 Goldeneye, 36 Red-breasted Merganser and 44 Great Crested Grebe. Brands Bay was full of birds on the low tide too with c400 Dunlin, 6 Sanderling, c150 Avocet, c30 Pintail, 14 Grey Plover and the Great White Egret. The Purple Sandpiper still seems to be around as it was noted near the houseboats at the harbour mouth. Off Middle Beach, Studland there were 3 Common Scoter and 6 Black-necked Grebe

Purple Sandpiper with Dunlin and Ringed Plover – Studland Houseboats – Nick Gadenne

Jerry’s Point continues continues to maintain its fine form, today featuring 7 Great Northern Diver close in, 2 Scaup, 21 Great Crested Grebe, 15 Red-breasted Merganser and c.100 Continental Cormorants. Nearby, Bramble Bush Bay hosted 27 Turnstone, 75 Dunlin, 82 Oystercatcher, 2 Grey Plover and a Curlew.

High tide at Lytchett Fields saw 2 Green Sandpiper, 31 Black-tailed Godwit, 9 Dunlin, 4 Redshank, 1 Curlew, 1 Kingfisher, as well as a Goldcrest. 2 Marsh Harrier, 2 Buzzard and a Kestrel doing the rounds. A Black Redstart kicked around Hamworthy Park early morning and the day concluded with another super lamping session at Sunnyside, rewarding the small ringing team with 3 Jack Snipe, 1 Common Snipe and 3 Fieldfare. Still very few Woodcock about!

Fieldfare – Ed Bennett

Great Northern Diver – Jerrry’s Point – Gary Hayman

There was a pretty dank set of conditions across the harbour for much of the day. Best logged today were 4 Marsh Harrier out over Swineham, 4 Spotted Redshank, 380 Avocet and 1 Great White Egret in Middlebere. Along the lane at Middlebere were 47 Fieldfare and off Jerry’s Point 3 Great Northern Diver and only 1 Scaup seen, but conditions weren’t great. A ringtail Hen Harrier flew over the Corfe to Stoborough Road this morning too.

Brent Geese – Poole Harbour mouth

Odds and sods reported today including 127 Magpie going into roost at Hatch Pond, which is always a sight to see. At Poole Park there was a drake Goldeneye close in giving good photo opportunities. There was a full Brownsea Lagoon count conducted which retuned 9 Spoonbill, 940 Avocet, 2200+ Dunlin, 37 Knot, 110 Grey Plover, 5 Spotted Redshank, 13 Greenshank and 10+ Bar-tailed Godwit. There was a Short-eared Owl out hunting over Arne Moors, viewed from Slepe Heath and there were 6 Marsh Harrier out scattered around the Wareham Channel, where we’ve sadly learnt that their normal roost site seems to have been permanently disturbed by Wildfowling activity. At least they’re still present, that’s one thing but lets hope they can re-find a new, safe and quieter location to roost through the winter.

Goldeneye – Poole Park – Ian Ballam

Jerry’s Point, THE Poole Harbour site at the moment came up trumps again today with a Purple Sandpiper feeding on the mud off the point. Purple Sands are rare enough in the harbour these days, but to see one feeding out on the mud is even rarer. The Scaup flock grew to 6 birds this afternoon too and there were 3 Common Scoter, 1 Long-tailed Duck, 7 Black-necked Grebe, 27 Red-breasted Merganser and 57 Great Crested Grebe and 6 Great Northern Diver. There was another Great Northern Diver off Shipstal Beach and one more off Baiter. Not quite in the harbour but an adult male Hen Harrier was seen at Morden Bog and at Swineham there were 2 Marsh Harrier. At the harbour entrance this morning a decent range of species entered the harbour including 1 Red-throated Diver, 1 Great Northern Diver, 1 Long-tailed Duck, 99 Shag and 3 Common Scoter, and on the water in Shell Bay were 3 Black-necked Grebe.

Purple Sandpiper – Jerry’s Point – Garry Hayman