Ooof, where did the warmth go? Having been Costa Del Dorset for the last month, it was suddenly all change today as the temperature plummeted. Sensibly most people stayed inside, but an Osprey was seen heading north over Upton Heath/Corfe Mullen mid-morning and a Red Kite landed in a tree along Sandy Lane, Upton which must have been quite a sight.

We’ve also had our night sound recorder deployed at Lytchett Fields over the last week and have been through several of the files. Overall, the five nights it was deployed saw some interesting and certainly some notable birds pass over. Most notable was a Hawfinch that passed over on the night of May 6^th at 23:23. We last recoded Hawfinch at night during the autumn of the big influx year back in 2017 when thousands arrived into the UK. Prior to that winter they were always an exceptionally scarce bird in Poole Harbour / Dorset with only a handful of autumn records. Since the big influx year they reverted to being a really scarce bird, so to have a spring passage migrant logged in May is certainly an eye opener. Also logged were reasonable numbers of Ringed Plover and Dunlin, several Whimbrel, Common Sandpiper, Greenshank and Avocet a couple of Spotted Flycatcher, a single Grey Plover and lots of (presumed) local movements of Coot, Little Grebe, Teal and Nightjar. The most interesting thing about all these calls is that other than Greenshank and Whimbrel none of the other night sound recorded species mentioned above were visually seen at Lytchett Fields during any of the corresponding days……highlighting just how much goes through and over our heads at night!

We hope you’ve all had a decent bank holiday and managed to get involved in to todays action. Below is an overview of sightings from across the Bank Holiday weekend but we have to of course first discuss the incredible Red Kite migration that took place along Southern Dorset today.

It kind of felt like lockdown was building up to this moment with Red Kite being a main feature and focus for many peoples garden lists. To provide some context, it was barely 5 years ago that Red Kite wasn’t even a guaranteed bird on a Poole Harbour year list. However, populations elsewhere in the UK are thriving meaning dispersing, non-breeding birds from those populations move out of their natal areas and go on big spring migratory journey’s, often heading SW. Over the years we’ve seen this migration grow with some days seeing 10-20 Red Kite logged across Poole Harbour in a single day. Well, today blew those totals well out of the water. It started at Lytchett Bay when at around 9am the first one was logged heading SSW, quickly followed by another. Within an hour 15 had been logged and by early afternoon 23. At the same time 8 were logged over Oakdale, 11 over Poole Hospital, 13 over Canford Heath, 14 over Lytchett Matravers, counts of 3-5 over Sandford, Wareham, Studland, 26 over Langton Matravers and a whopping 63 over/past Westbourne. They were literally everywhere with the peak certainly seeming to be between 11am and 12pm, but it suddenly stopped at around 2pm. Its hard to estimate an exact count but it’s safe to assume that several hundred must have moved through the area this morning which is just fantastic and an experience many of you who saw ‘flocks’ of Red Kite today will never forget.

Also in the harbour today were 4 Hobby sightings at Lytchett Bay, a migrant Osprey caught a fish in the Wareham Channel and fed on it somewhere near the mouth of the Frome. Cuckoo are still going for it at Lytchett Bay, Swineham, Hartland Moor and Slepe Heath. A Cattle Egret was in the Frome Valley near the Wareham/Stoborough causeway and further up the Frome Valley Egyptian Geese have increased, and have even decided to breed, which we think may be the first Poole Harbour nesting of this species. The Brownsea Lagoon is now holding 220 Sandwich Terns with 122 sitting on nests, also 110 Common Tern with some beginning to settle and also 1 Med Gull nest. The Swineham area is now holding 47 Reed Warbler, 19 Cetti’s Warbler, 5 Sedge Warbler, 26 Reed Bunting and also 2 Hobby there too.

Also our Osprey nest cam hasn’t only still been providing great footage of CJ7, but also a few ‘extras’ in the shape of a Tawny Owl and posing Nightjar.

Tawny Owl on Osprey Nest Cam

Spring migration was really well presented today with a whole suit a nice birds and totals right across the harbour. Lets start with the raptors where bird of the day was a cracking Honey Buzzard photographed over someone’s garden in Poole Town. Other migrant raptors included a passage Osprey that went north over Lytchett Bay along with a juv Marsh Harrier. There were 3 Hobby on Arne Moors, a possible Black Kite over Ridge and Red Kite were everywhere today with records from pretty much every area of the harbour including Poole Town, Lytchett Bay/Matravers, Sandford, Slepe Heath, Swineham, Upton and Studland. Passerines were well represented and it was the best push of hirundines so far this spring with a broad front of mainly Swallow passing across the harbour and to a lesser extent House Martin, Sand Martin and Swift. At Lytchett Bay 364 Swallow were logged and there were also 2 Wheatear, 2 Lesser Whitethroat, 2 Yellow Wagtail, 1 Common Whitethroat, 23 Linnet, 1 Bar-tailed Godwit, 5 Whimbrel and 4 Curlew. There was more lockdown ‘garden gold’ with a Great White Egret seen over Oakdale. There were 8 Swift in Wareham looking as if they were prospecting certain areas of North Street.

Things are looking promising over the coming days with settled weather and a good easterly air flow up until Sunday so we could be in for more garden fly by treats between now and then.

Honey Buzzard – Poole – Clare Slade

The colder winder conditions over the last couple of days seemed to have put a halt on migration. That said, a nice group of 38 Dunlin and 5 Ringed Plover were on Lytchett Fields on Monday morning. The unsettled weather often gets Swifts going and several were active over Poole Park today and a decent run of Swallow pushed through again on Monday. Other than that it was a rather poor show for birds these last couple of days.

However, with us all being locked up in our houses, it’s been a great time for some ‘noc-migging’ to take place in our local areas. Luckily there are a few of us now that sound record the night sky, hoping and trying to sound record passing migrants that cruise through the darkness. This spring has been really productive so far with some supurb species encountered, ranging from the more typical Coot, Moorhen and Water Rail to the not so typical Spotted Redshank, Common Scoters or Eurasian Dotterel. Below are a series of examples of recordings we’ve complied from our local area as well as a few recordings from another local noc-migger Nick Hull.

Little Grebe – Lytchett Bay – Paul Morton

Whimbrel – Lytchett Bay – Paul Morton

Eurasian Dotterel – Lytchett Matravers – Paul Morton

Spotted Redshank – Lytchett Bay – Nick Hull

Well, that’s April come and gone and still no sign of LS7. We’re still not giving up hope and neither is CJ7 it seems. Her drive to breed has been building all the way through April with constant nest building, egg cup scraping and then last night, she surprised us all by laying an egg at around 3:30am.

Of course, with no male around this will of course be an unfertilised egg, but it just goes to show how happy she is here and specifically on the nest cam.

Over the course of the day we received numerous questions from the public about this occurrence and what does it mean for CJ7? So to answer all those questions and to give you an explanation as to why she’s done this we’ve publish THIS BLOG for you to read which will hopefully answer a lot of those questions for you.

As we role into May, there’s still time for a breeding attempt with May 10^th roughly being the cut off date for any chance of breeding this season and with the weather looking favourable again this weekend, we’ll be glued to the webcam, just like we have been for the last month.

Sightings included 4 Whimbrel in Holes Bay north along with at least 6 Reed Warbler and a Cetti’s Warbler along the northern Holes Bay shoreline. A Cuckoo was getting grief off the wind and a parent Meadow Pipit on Hartland and a Hobby was over Slepe Heath.

CJ7 and her unfertilised egg