Passage is easing up a bit now, with many birds having already fledged their first broods. Right across the harbour the calls of Long-tailed Tit parties can be heard and the first Chiffchaff youngsters have been logged, as have Blackcaps at the PC World drain. Incredibly, species such as Blue Tit and Great Tit usually only have one brood per year, so to think that many have now completed a successful breeding season already, and it’s only the end of May is a bit sad really. It won’t be long before we turn our thoughts to Autumn migration (which normally starts end of June/early July) when our Long-tailed Tits will be joined by the likes of young Willow Warbler, Whitethroat and Spotted Flycatchers. At Morden Bog, despite being just outside our recording area it has also seen a decent fledge rate of regular species for the site including young Dartford Warbler, Yellowhammer and Woodlark already logged. Also at Morden Bog, 2 Cuckoo, 2 Hobby, 3 Common Whitethroat, 2 pairs of Spotted Flycatcher and plenty of Siskin. On the Brownsea Lagoon 4 Spoonbill appeared at around midday and a few more Sandwich Tern chicks hatched as well. Also present were 6 Avocet, 14 Dunlin, 8 Bar-tailed Godwit and a fly over Hobby.

Today the first Sandwich Tern chicks hatched on the Brownsea Lagoon, which is excellent news. With 228 sitting pairs counted on Saturday, and the only pair of Med Gulls vacating a few weeks ago (which often eat tern chicks), it looks as if Sarnie Terns could have a bumper summer this year. Also on the lagoon were the first Shelduck ducklings of the year. Each year one (sometimes two) pairs of Nightjar breed on Brownsea and can often be seen bombing around at dusk up near the lake hide. Well today one of them was discovered roosting right in front of the Lake Hide providing excellent photo opportunities. At Upton CP a singing Garden Warbler was a good find as was a Firecrest with good numbers of Reed Warbler and Blackcap along the fringes of the park and harbour shoreline.

Nightjar – Brownsea Island – Peter Moore

Newly hatched Sandwich Tern chick – Brownsea Island – Peter Moore

After yesterdays high from the Puffin boat, there wasn’t the need for too many good birds today, with the smattering of spring regulars doing just enough to top us up! At Swineham there were a minimum of 3 Cuckoo calling with another 2 on Hartland. Swift totals around Poole are a bit sporadic currently with only a small handful over Poole Old Town, but 13 reported over the Lake road area of Hamworthy, which is a usual breeding area too. A Peregrine Falcon dashed over Fleetsbridge towards Upton Heath and a reed bed survey at Lytchett Bay noted stable totals of breeding Reed Warbler and Reed Bunting compared to the last full 2011 count. At Sunnyside Farm there were 2 Egyptian Geese, 2 Lapwing and a couple of newly fledged Stonechat. On Upton Heath 5 different Common Whitethroat were heard singing which is actually (and sadly) a ‘high’ count for the harbour.

Common Whitethroat – Upton Heath – Rene Goad

Quiet day in terms of sighting reports. Poole park had usually wildfowl with lots of juv’s, Mute Swan 4 cygnets, Mallard 14 ducklings, Coot 3 young, Greylag 9 gosling, Canada Geese 3 gosling and Cormorant. Dartford Warblers seen with young over Hartland Moor. Behind the Brownsea webcams we have counted c267 Black-headed Gull on the islands with c48 chicks, there were more than this out of view no doubt! Also on the lagoon were Shelduck, Gadwall, 6 Avocet, Oystercatcher, 14 Bar-tailed Godwit, 2 Black-tailed Godwit, 2 Sanderling, 2 Knot, 52 Dunlin, 2 Mediterranean Gull, Herring Gull, 36 Great Black-backed Gull, 228 sitting Sandwich Tern (no eggs hatched yet but expecting next week!), Common Tern colonies have started nesting this week, 18 Cormorant, Grey Heron, 2 Spoonbill, and toward the end of the day 2 Little Tern were seen on the islands with Sandwich Tern flocks.

First Puffin Boat Cruise

Phew… What an amazing bird boat! We started with the list seen above at Brownsea Lagoon, catching sight of the 2 Little Terns seen an hour before the trip on the webcams as well as a Buzzard being mobbed by corvids over Brownsea. Five minutes after we left the harbour we had astonishing views of a beautiful summer plumage Arctic Skua chasing and harassing gulls and terns, just 100 yards off the boat! We had a few good minutes observing the light phase skua steal fish from other birds, before it flew off high north. Just breathtaking!

Before we left our Poole Harbour recording boundary, we managed to observe some early Gannet, Guillemot, Razorbill and Fulmar. We also saw Swallow, flocks House Martin, 1 Peregrine perched on the cliffs at Old Harry’s and unusually a Little Egret. On our return trip past Old Harry’s we recieved a beautiful sunset over the harbour, and some Med Gulls in the Studland Bay area. From Durlston to Dancing Ledge we saw good (Dorset) numbers of Shag, Common Guillemot, Razorbill, Fulmar, 22 Kittiwake and finally 5 Puffin at the end as well as some Rock Pipit, Swift, Swallow. All with decent close view from the boat. An all round happy boat!!! 

Westerly winds today brought a welcomed sighting of an Osprey at 09.25 over at Arne thismorning. An Iberian Chiffchaff was reported at Corfe Castle, 300m up the path to the hill, west side of the castle, but sadly a further search couldn’t find/relocate it.  Another interesting find was a Yellow-legged Gull at Lytchett Fields which also hosted 40 Ringed Plover, 12 Black-tailed Godwit, 1 Greenshank, 12 Lapwing.

Over at Brownsea Lagoon c321 Sandwich Tern and c155 Common Tern are still busy nesting with no reports of chicks. The Great Black-backed Gull populations are healthy at c33 individuals, along with the Oystercatcher numbers with 71 spotted today. 4 Gadwall, 4 Avocet, c5 Bar-tailed Godwit, c10 Black-tailed Godwit, c2 Ruddy Turnstone, c2 Knot, c5 Dunlin, 2 Mediterranean Gull and 2 Spoonbill were also counted.

Having not been on any of our nest platforms for 10 days, it was good to see female Osprey CJ7 on one this AM. She spent about 15 minuets on the platform before two Buzzard then took umbrage and saw her off. She was then later seen with a fish which was interesting as a second ‘fishless’ bird was then seen about 15 minutes later, suggesting 2 different birds were in the area at the same time. Another revelation came today in the form of a second Nightingale being discovered to be singing in the Piddle Valley. Our recent recordings of the 1^st bird (which were always from quite some distance away) made it sound like that the same bird was moving about the area. It wasn’t until sound recordists Mark Constantine and Magnus Robb took a listen and pointed out that the difference in sound level was due to the fact a second bird was singing further away. They still remain a frustrating pair to hear with both birds only singing during the hours of darkness. There is a reason for this though, and that’s because they’re un-paired. According to Mark and Magnus, un-paired birds sing through the night, whereas birds on territory with a female will sing during both the day and night. So it sounds like these poor lads won’t be fulfilling their summer dreams this year as we move closer to June, but lets hope they return next year and try try again.

Southerly winds have brought some relief from the warm weather we are experiencing in the harbour today. The Tern colonies are still exhibiting healthy numbers of breeding pairs with c153 Common Terns and c153 Sandwich Terns, eggs are not far off hatching now! 3 Gadwall, 5 Bar-tailed Godwit, 14 Black-tailed Godwit, a Sanderling, a Grey Heron, c50 Oystercatcher, 2 Spoonbill and 2 Avocet were busy wading across the Lagoon. Over in the Piddle Valley a Tree Pipit called overhead on night migration, Nightjar was heard churring and the (night only) singing Nightingale was singing perfectly at 3am! Over at Lytchett Fields, with the lack of rain, it was a lovely sight to see Alison Copland’s video of a flock of House Martin collecting mud for their nests. This is a positive sign for the Upton House Martin population and the wider UK population and has given us inspiration to research Poole Harbour’s population later this year. The best record of the week only reached us today sadly, and that was of a Turtle Dove seen and photographed at Greenland’s Farm, Studland by NT Ranger Ben Cooke. And these days, there’s only one thing rarer than a Turtle Dove in Poole Harbour and that’s a photo of one in Poole Harbour, so thanks to ben Cooke for sending this through.

Turtle Dove – Greenlands Farm – Ben Cooke

A gorgeous sunny day has heard reports of a Hoopoe around the Oakdale area, but no confirmed sightings yet. Brownsea Lagoon has stable numbers of Sandwich Tern with c154 seen and Common Tern with c127 seen over on the islands with 48 Oystercatcher, some of which were showing signs of nesting on the islands. c168 Black-headed Gull have 7 chicks hatched between them so far. c132 Shelduck have been joined by 32 Godwit Sp. seen at a distance, 1 Avocet, 2 Spoonbill, 2 knot and 3 Dunlin. Lytchett Fields have also seen 5 Ringed Plover and 2 Dunlin.

Today we gave the harbour some good coverage by taking a survey boat up and down and across the harbour. There were still signs of passage with some respectable numbers of waders on the lagoon including 7 Knot, 21 Bar-tailed Godwit, 43 Black-tailed Godwit, 27 Dunlin, 1 Grey Plover and 1 Turnstone. Birds now settled on the lagoon included 2 Spoonbill, 7 Avocet, c150 Common Tern, c200 Sandwich Tern and up to 3 pairs of Oystercatcher seemed to be nesting along the Seymers shoreline. On the southern shores a lone Barnacle Goose was in the Rempstone Fields and up at Swineham a male and female Cuckoo were plotting against the local Reed Warblers of which 29 were present along with 9 Sedge Warbler, 4 Reed Bunting, c40 Swift, c50 Swallow, c30 House Martin and a pair of Bearded Tit. On the edge of the Wareham Channel an amazing count of 110 Mute Swan were gathered, all assumed to be 1-2 year old non-breeding birds. We see this happen each summer but believe it to be our highest count in recent years but there were 219 on the 16th August 1999. At Lytchett Fields there was s ingle Grey Plover in the bay with the rising tide.

As we’ve spoken about many times before, we’re really keen on learning about which birds are migrating or moving about out and around the harbour at night. Last night, just north of the harbour we recorded this Nightjar over the rural village of Lytchett Matravers. Now it’s not unusual to hear these calls at night, as after all, Nightjar are nocturnal. However, hearing these calls away from the heathlands is quite rare so this particular bird could either be a migrant passing through the area, or a foraging individual moving off from the heath to feed before making it’s way back again.

Nightjar – Call of migrant/foraging bird – Lytchett Matravers – 20/05/19 @ 01:05

Cuckoo – Swineham – Keith Rawling

Yellowhammer – Challow Hill, Corfe – Keith Rawling

A reasonably dry morning has been followed by heavy downpours this afternoon putting a stop to the busy nesting activity seen by the terns over at Brownsea Lagoon today, with continued high numbers of c188 Sandwich Tern and c104 Common Tern but still no chicks to be seen. High numbers of Oystercatcher and Shelduck, 59 and c50 respectively, are also present, along with 2 Knot, 5 Black-tailed Godwit, c18 Bar-tailed Godwit, 14 Dunlin, 7 Gadwall and the resident 6 Avocet and 2 Spoonbill were also seen.

At Middlebere 2 Egyptian Geese were caught on camera commandeering the Osprey nest and a Cuckoo was also seen. 5 Swift and 5 House Martin were reported over Poole and Parkstone with 5 Tufted Duck also spotted in Poole Park. 1 Greenshank, 2 Ringed Plover, 5 Black-tailed Godwit, 1 Oystercatcher and a juvenile Pied Wagtail seen at Lytchett Bay.

Up on Hartland 1 Lesser Whitethroat, 1 Whinchat and Hobby were near Scotland Farm. Around Slepe  Heath at dawn 4 Cuckoo were calling and an Osprey and 3 Hobby were over the Wareham Channel mid-afternoon. At Lytchett Fields mid-afternoon a Cuckoo was dropping into the reedbed between the fields and Holton Pools and on the fields were 2 Little Ringed Plover, 9 Black-tailed Godwit and 1 Med Gull. There have been loads of newly fledged Long-tailed Tit, Blue Tit and Great Tit at numerous sites, giving mid-May a very autumn feel as the zee zee zee their way through the hedgerows. We also recently found a juvenile Tawny Owl in woods just outside Wareham, drawn to it by it’s distinctive contact call.

 Tawny Owl Juv’s – Wareham – 17/05/19 @ 01:42

 Little ringed Plover – Lytchett Fields