Those on our highly enjoyable Holes Bay guided walk this afternoon were treated to 230 Black-tailed Godwit, 22 Knot, Grey Plover, Grey Wagtail, a carpet of several hundred Wigeon, an elusive Firecrest and exceptional views of a Kingfisher. The adult male successfully caught a fish after several failed attempts from his favourite shopping trolley. Earlier in the day, 3 Sandwich Tern were also observed in Holes Bay south.

Two Ring Ouzel continue to kick around Godlingston Hill Gully, but remain quiet elusive. Middlebere Channel held c700 Black-tailed Godwit, 200 Avocet, 15 Redshank, 7 Grey Heron, 5 Little Egret, 3 Curlew, 2 Shelduck and good numbers of Wigeon. Nearby, c150 Lapwing were occupying the Slepe farm field. Brands Bay featured a further 98 Curlew, 285 Black-tailed Godwit, 40 Dunlin, 69 Redshank, 61 Pintail, 1 Brent Goose, 3 Grey Plover, 45 Great Crested Grebe & more Wigeon.

Kingfisher – Holes Bay Guided Walk

The Grey Phalarope remained at Lytchett Fields today, seen this morning from the French’s Pool viewpoint. A Curlew Sandpiper from Lytchett Fields was also reported. A count at Holes Bay today produced 420 Black-tailed Godwit, 115 Dunlin, 36 Redshank, 21 Knot, 2 Curlew, 2 Grey Plover, 552 Wigeon, 211 Teal, 21 Shoveler, 6 Pintail and 1 Gadwall. No Ospreys were reported in the harbour area today, though a Red Kite was seen over Holton Lee. At South Haven, Studland a Jack Snipe was seen on the waters edge near the car park and a drake Eider was in Shell Bay and 2 Woodlark and 4 Crossbill flew over South Haven.

Mega news! Remember the Lytchett Bay Aquatic Warbler trapped and ringing on 12th August? Well, 16 days later the very same bird was controlled (re-trapped) in Northern Spain – simply superb!

Aquatic Warbler Control

Turnstone – Baiter 

The Redwings have arrived! With 10 venturing down the Piddle Valley yesterday, it was only a matter of time before the rest got going and this morning flocks of between 50-150 were logged at several sites. This isn’t quite the floodgates being opened, rather the first casual observers in a newly opened discount store. It starts off fairly calm, until before you know it the masses arrive and carnage ensues. Poole Harbours peak thrush passage tends to be the latter part of October and in the right wind conditions can see big numbers of Redwing, Song Thrush, Fieldfare and Blackbird track across certain areas, most notably the harbour mouth, but also across the top of Arne, through the Corfe Gap and up (and down) the river valley’s. This morning flocks were passing over urban and rural areas so be sure to look out and up when you first get up to see if you can catch the last of the nights passage before birds settle down on the ground for the day. Now’s also the best time to start heading out into your gardens at night, anytime after dark and try listening for Redwing passing over. This is known as noc-mig (nocturnal migration) and we’ll be doing a video about this soon. Also today an Osprey was roosting on the north shore of Brownsea at dawn which was just visible from Baiter. At Lytchett Fields the Grey Phalarope was still present and a Pochard was out in the bay. Crossbills passed over the Piddle Valley (18), Lytchett Bay (2) and Studland (11). There are also currently 9 different Marsh Harrier in the harbour, spending most of their day around the Wareham Channel, Middlebere area and 2 Merlin were on Hartland. The Great White Egret was in Middlebere again and the harbour seems to be littered with Stonechats currently with counts of 5-10 at multiple sites.

Below is an example of thrush migration we recorded at dawn back in 2015 up on Ballard Down. No matter how many times we hear Redwing, the first autumn birds always get our hearts racing!

Redwing & Fieldfare, calls of arriving migrants – Glebelands, Poole Harbour 06/11/15

Male Stonechat – Middlebere

Lytchett Bay’s form continues… This morning, a small team of BTO volunteers tried hopelessly to disguise their excitement from their colleagues as they retuned from a net round to the ringing table. The suspicious looks around several of the team indicated something was up! After processing several Chiffchaff, Reed Bunting, Blackcap, Lesser Redpoll and a Firecrest, the next bird to be processed was a Yellow-browed Warbler! The first record for Poole Harbour this autumn. In other Lytchett Bay news, the Grey Phalarope again made sporadic appearances on the Fields throughout the day, feeding actively at distance.

A juvenile Osprey made a brief appearance in Holes Bay at 11.30am. The Bay also held 620 Wigeon, 47 Curlew, 133 Redshank, 87 Dunlin, 23 Knot, 5 Pintail, 3 Gadwall, 2 Little Grebe, 2 Shelduck & 2 Kingfisher. Eight Spoonbill ventured over onto Brownsea Lagoon today, after staying faithful to Arne in recent weeks.

We carried out a vis-mig session up on Ballard Down early morning too which saw the first 3 Yellowhammer of the autumn pass over, along with 34 Crossbill, 5 Reed Bunting, 17 Lesser Redpoll, c200 each of Linnet and Goldfinch, c100 Chaffinch, 1 Merlin and lots of Meadow Pipit and alba Wagtail

One of the Isle of White White-tailed Eagles was seen over Durlston Country Park this morning at 11am. Surely this bird must have travelled over the harbour?! We’ll find out more when we receive the satellite tag data from the IoW team.

Yellow-browed Warbler – Lytchett Bay – Marie Smith

Osprey – Holes Bay – René Goad

Yellowhammer – Ballard Down

Neither the Lytchett Bay Long-billed Dowitcher or Grey Phalarope were present at Lytchett Fields during the morning but the Grey Phalarope did appear about 17:00 briefly. However, the morning was redeemed by a juvenile Merlin and a late Yellow Wagtail. Other highlights included 2 Green Sandpiper, 76 Black-tailed Godwit, juvenile male Marsh Harrier, 1 Peregrine, 2 Spotted Redshank, 1 Curlew Sandpiper, 75 Pied Wagtail, 7 Little Egret, as well as c200 Dunlin and c50 Wigeon. At Middlebere an Osprey was seen along with a Marsh Harrier and a Great White Egret

Holes Bay Osprey activity continued into today, with a juvenile over the Cycle Path in Holes Bay NE corner near McDonalds early afternoon. The Arne Bay Spoonbill flock reached 30 individuals today, after a count of 42 yesterday. Our Poole Town Walk enjoy a light scattering of summer migrants, including 2 Wheatear, 6 Swallow and 5 Sandwich Tern. Circa 25 Turnstone were along the quay, Common Redshank were feeding on the Poole Park islands and plenty of Oystercatcher were kicking around the fields.

A poor sea watch at Branksome produced only 4 Common Scoter, 1 Great Crested Grebe, 5 Gannet and 7 Sandwich Tern.

Wheatear – Baiter Park

A cracking day’s birding around the Harbour today, including a late case of Osprey mania! We started the day off at Holes Bay, with two of our team positioned along the shoreline in search of Ospreys. If you haven’t been to the stone bench before, it’s well worth a visit over the coming days if the juveniles(!) stick around – you can find more information about the site here (SY 99625 92858).

At 9.30am, the first juvenile Osprey appeared on Pergins Island Perching Platform. Before too soon, the juvenile was joined by a second bird. And if that wasn’t exciting enough, the two were then joined by a third bird in the afternoon, presumably the individual that circled over Hatch Pond briefly at 1.12pm, before heading towards Holes Bay. The bay also saw autumn high counts of 614 Wigeon, 100 Teal and 15 Shoveler, 2 Pintail, 23 Mallard, 49 Swans, 2 Moorhen.  47 Cormorant, 19 Oystercatcher, 80 Curlew, Kingfisher, Swallows and an Avocet.

Lytchett Fields held on the the long-staying Long-billed Dowitcher for another day, matched by another top find – Grey Phalarope! Other scarce birds for the bay included Shoveler, Gadwall and Common Sandpiper from the Turlin shore. Elsewhere, the low tide at Baiter early morning made for a super hour of birding, with highlights of 1 Bar-tailed Godwit, 2 Sanderling, 2 Mediterranean Gull, 17 Ringed Plover, 35 Turnstone, 2 Wheatear, 1 Kingfisher, 3 Sandwich Tern, 11 Swallow, Great Crested Grebe, 2 Rock Pipit and good Redshank & Oystercatcher counts!

Juvenile Osprey – Holes Bay – Alison Copland

Wow, what a day…..for numerous reasons. We’ll save the best til last, but we can also start with the ‘best’ as well. At midday, the trail cam we installed on our newly erected Pergin’s Island Osprey platform in Holes Bay transmitted 20 photos to us showing a gorgeous un-ringed Osprey using the platform to feed on. Analysing the photos it looks as if it made three catches in three hours which is really good going. The installation of this platform was inspired by the fact that 2-3 young Osprey began using Holes Bay last autumn on their migration south to a West Africa. We’re thrilled that an Osprey has now stopped off in the harbour and used the new perching platform for several hours to feed on. This is great news and shows that Osprey can be tempted into the urban parts of the harbour with perching/nesting platforms and we’re hoping it sticks around a while and uses the platform over the next few days. If it does our team will be down at Upton CP to keep an eye on its behaviour and set up a ‘Pop Up’ watch point to show any interested passing members of the public. Keep an eye out on our social media channels. What was possibly the same Osprey was also seen over the Brownsea Lagoon. Also in Holes Bay were c500 Black-tailed Godwit, 26 Knot, c30 Dunlin, 8 Pintail, 2 Kingfisher with 3 Kingfisher lots of Chiffchaff and 3 Blackcap in the PCW Drain. There was no sign today of the Long-billed Dowitcher but on Lytchett fields but there were 488 Dunlin, 1 Wood Sandpiper, 2 Curlew Sandpiper, 6 Greenshank and 1 Marsh Harrier. On the Holme Lane GP were 7 Egyptian Geese, 30 Wigeon, 1 Shoveler and 4 Tufted Duck. At Baiter there were 44 Turnstone and 2 Ringed Plover. A brief sea watch at Branksome produced just a single Brent Goose and 6 Sandwich Tern. At Greenlands Farm there were 14 Wheatear, c10 Stonechat and c40 Meadow Pipit, In Studland Bay the first Black-necked Grebe of the winter was back and there were 8 Med Gulls on the beach. There’s definitely been an arrival of Rock Pipit with 5 along the Studland shoreline and a few now at Baiter.

Now for the ridiculous news. A photo of a ‘downed’ Osprey appeared on Twitter today that had been rescued from Hengistbury beach yesterday afternoon and was now in care. The initial photo that showed a very bedraggled bird of prey did look a bit like an Osprey but numerous features didn’t add up. Several of us sat and looked at the photo, ruling out numerous Osprey features one by one. A few comments also started appearing on Twitter suggesting the bird didn’t look quite right and that features looked better for Short-toed Eagle. Anyway, several minutes later a couple more photos emerged of the bird looking a bit healthier, and without doubt, those photos absolutely showed a Short-toed Eagle in the hands of it’s rescuers. Roll back to yesterday morning, we received a phone call from local birder Jol Mitchell who had at 11:20am seen a large, pale bird of prey being harassed by crows off Studland Beach, heading towards Hengistbury. When discussing the features, Jol very cautiously said that the bird he saw looked quite like a Short-toed Eagle, totally unbeknown of what would be discovered the following day. Considering the magnitude of such a bird (it would only be the UK’s 4^th record), Jol made a set of notes and ‘let the bird go’, pondering other possible conclusions such as Marsh Harrier or pale Buzzard, none of which fitted with what he saw. Role on 24 hours and it seems Jol’s instinct could well have been bang on with the eagle being collected off the beach at Hengistbury just 2 hours after having watched it heading in that direction. Wow, what an autumn the harbour is having! This (if accepted) will be Poole Harbours second record of Short-toed Eagle, the first of which was on May 31^st 2014 and was only seen (but photographed) by a single observer. Come on October…what other goodies have you got for us??

Juvenile Osprey on Pergins Island platform cam 

Finally a bit of rest-bite in the weather, which resulted in a good number of sightings including several good birds from the northern fringes of the harbour. At dawn an Osprey was hunting in Lytchett Bay, the first for over two weeks now. Plus, at dawn 7 different Marsh Harrier left the west harbour roost and an additional wing-tagged individual flew along the Wareham Channel, headed towards Corfe before then being seen near Old Harry. There were also 2 Merlin on Hartland Moor. In Holes Bay NE there were 2 Avocet, c450 Wigeon, 1 Bar-tailed Godwit, 1 Pintail, c150 Redshank and 2 Kingfisher. The PC World Drain was also busy with c20 Chiffchaff, 4 Blackcap, 2 Goldcrest, 2 Grey Wagtail, 4 Song Thrush and 2 Kingfisher. Lytchett fields really delivered again with the Long-billed Dowitcher re-appearing on Sherford Pools at 16:30 and during the day there were 3 Curlew Sandpiper, 1 Wood Sandpiper, c450 Dunlin, 6 Greenshank, 1 Green Sandpiper, 2 Spotted Redshank and 1 Marsh Harrier. The Middlebere Channel saw c400 Avocet and c500 Black-tailed Godwit and 1 Marsh Harrier.