It seems most people were either nursing a sore head or sore tummy today with not many reports. It’s not surprising either considering the weather did a complete 180 degree u-turn compared to the blissful spring-like conditions we saw on Christmas Day.

Still, 2 Great Northern Diver were off Middle Beach and a 4 Black-necked Grebe were off Jerry’s Point. With the weather looking to settle down for a bit lets hope plenty of you can get out and enjoy some New Year birding over the next couple of weeks.

And don’t forget that on January 19th its our Big Birds of Poole Harbour Bird Count where we want to encourage as many people as possible to get out on that day and survey the entire harbour so we can make an assessment of all harbour species present and a snap shot of their distribution and totals. More info on this event will be available soon, but for now….save the date in your diary and mark it ‘Birding Day’!!!

First and foremost we’d like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas from all of us here at Birds of Poole Harbour. 2019 Has seen us grow even more and our support even more so, allowing us to carry out more work, host more trips, carry out more surveys and ultimately protect and educate people on the harbours important bird life. We’re so excited about 2020 for a whole host of reasons but we’re aiming to make next year our biggest and most successful year to date as a charity and we can’t wait to share it with you, so as always, thanks for your kind support and donations over the last 12 months and lets make 2020 a year to remember.

Sightings from Christmas Day included a single Marsh Harrier at Holton Lee, 1 Merlin at Middlebere, 3 Great Northern Diver and a Black-necked Grebe from Sandbanks and 8 Black-necked Grebe and 10 Common Scoter from Middle Beach, Studland. There were also 2 Firecrest in scrub at Evening Hill. In Poole Park there were 2 Goldeneye. Off Jerry’s Point there was a single Slavonian Grebe and 3 Black-necked Grebe.

Goldeneye – Poole Park – Rene Goad

Well, well, well…..what a great Christmas present.

Before we (and you) see in the big day, we want to quickly share some exciting news we received today. About around 3pm we got a Facebook message from a lady called Joanna Dailey stating she was down in The Gambia at a site where there were currently 20+ Osprey hanging around with one that had a blue leg ring coded 019. The message also came with a photo clearly showing the leg ring, and low and behold, it’s one of our 2019 translocated chicks making it’s self at home in the Gunjur Quarry area in southern Gambia. This is a brilliant piece of news as it shows that at least one (and hopefully more) of this years youngsters made it safe and sound to Africa.

We’d like to say a huge thanks to Joanna for her speedy news and for allowing us to use her photo. We’d also like to thank her guide too, Fansu Bojang who showed Joanna the site with all these over-wintering Osprey.  Joanna also kindly said she’s try and send some video too, so when all the Christmas festivities are over we’ll get this posted for you asap.

Bird news today was fairly quiet as we’d expected but the Marsh Harriers were putting on a good show at Holton Pools with a Water Pipit there too. From the top of Old Harry 2 Great Northern Diver went by and 3 Black-necked Grebe were in Studland bay and 8 Ring-necked Parakeet were in the South Beach car park. The Siberian Chiffchaff was still present along the North Walls in Wareham and 2 Firecrest were on Slepe Heath.

Osprey chick 019 photographed in The Gambia on Christmas Eve – Joanna Dailey

Marsh Harrier – Holton Pools – Alison Copland

Christmas Day looks as if it will be the best birding day for months! So will you be able to sneak out between the Turkey and Gavin & Stacey!!!?? If so, there are plenty of good birds about including some new arrivals.

Shell Bay; 1 Med Gull, 80 Dark-bellied Brent Geese, 6 Oystercatcher, 1 Black-throated Diver, 2 Great Northern Diver.

Bramble Bush Bay; 1 Little Egret, 7 Oystercatcher, 4 Turnstone, 3 Great Crested Grebe, 7 Red-breasted Merganser, 1 Red-throated Diver, 2 Sanderling.

Jerry’s Point; 34 Brent Geese, 50 Oystercatcher, 13 Red-breasted Merganser, 6 Great Crested Grebe, 1 Long-tailed Duck, 2 Black-necked Grebe.

Brands Bay; 3 Great Crested Grebe, 50+ Knot, 30 Wigeon, 50+ Redshank, 107 Brent Geese, 200+ Dunlin, 31 Curlew, 20 Oystercatcher, 8 Shelduck, 50+ Grey Plover.

Studland Bay, from Middle beach: Red-breasted Merganser, 1 Great Crested Grebe, 3 Black- necked Grebe, 6 Common Scoter, 10 Brent Geese, 3 Med Gulls

Corfe Sewage Works, Norden; 3 Jays, 20+ Siskin, 1 Treecreeper, 6 Chiffchaff (no obvious Siberians), 4 Pied Wagtail, 1 Grey Wagtail, 1 Goldcrest, 10+ Redwing, 1 Buzzard.

Middlebere (counts approximate as low tide & deep channels obscuring some birds); 8 Avocet, 150 Teal, 1 Curlew, 20 Wigeon, 2 Shelduck, 1 Heron, 1 Little Egret, 80+ Dunlin, 1 Buzzard, 1 Goldcrest, 1 Fieldfare, 4 Redshank.

Other highlights from around the harbour included 2 Marsh Harrier and 1 Water Pipit at Holton Pools, 1 Great White Egret at Littlesea, 20 Spoonbill at Shipstal Point, Arne, 2 Hen Harrier in the Wareham Channel and the Great Grey Shrike was at Morden Bog still.

Middlebere provided views of the female Hen Harrier, Merlin, 2 Marsh Harrier, Spotted Redshank, 13 Pintail, 45 Teal, 140 Wigeon, 230 Avocet, 32 Curlew and 200 Lapwing, Black-tailed Godwit and Brent Geese.

At Lytchett Bay, highlight records were 5 Spoonbill, along with 1 juvenile male Hen Harrier.

2 Long-tailed Duck were seen off Jerry’s Point again and an excellent harbour record was sighted off Knoll Beach today in the form of a Black-throated Diver.

Another beautifully calm day which saw rain mid morning but it soon eased off, providing excellent harbour watching conditions again. Highlights today included 2 Long-tailed Duck of the north Brownsea Lagoon shoreline, which were associating with Red-breasted Merganser. A total of 8 Great Northern Diver were spread across the harbour with individuals off Baiter, Hamworthy Park, Shipstal, Brownsea and several in South Deep. On Shipsstal c20 Spoonbill were huddled and 8 Black-necked Grebe were out in central harbour. Holes Bay NE was again looking great on the low tide this AM with Avocet, Dunlin, Wigeon, Teal, Pintail, Redshank, Curlew and Oystercatcher all right next to the cycle path. Up the Frome Valley at East Holme 2 Egyptian Geese were on the floodplain with 10 Little Egret, a Marsh Harrier and Peregrine went over. At dusk the Black Brant settled on Round Island with dark-bellied Brent Geese. In Lytchett Bay there were 228 Avocet this morning and 42 Dunlin and at Holton Pools 1 Water Pipit and 1 Greenshank were out in front of the hide.