Without doubt, today’s best sighting (albeit brief) was when 7 migrating Great White Egret landed on Lytchett Fields for a few minuets before setting off again and headed off high north. It’s quite something that we’re no longer just seeing single birds in the harbour but now whole flocks! Even as recently as 2014 Great White Egret were still a real rarity in the harbour but between 1-3 have now been regularly over wintering since 2015 and with flocks of seven now appearing, how long will be it be until they’re as common as Little Egret? There was also a Spoonbill on Lytchett Fields. Brownsea was also productive today with 2 Roseate Tern settled all day with 1 Spoonbill and juv Garganey and Little Ringed Plover also logged. In Middlebere there were 2 Spotted Redshank and 5 Greenshank and an Osprey was on the Middlebere platform again.

Great White Egret flock – Lytchett Fields – Ian Ballam

Great White Egret flock – Lytchett Fields – Ian Ballam

This evening we hosted our second Nightjar ringing demo on Canford Heath in partnership with The Borough of Poole and Stour Ringing Group. After sadly drawing a blank on our last ringing demo, tonight was a totally different kettle of fish with 6 birds caught and shown to a delighted crowd. It was a magical evening with a great flying display prior to the demo, then followed by a detailed description of the scientific work being carried out by the team whilst being shown the birds. A truly one off experience. In Middlebere the Great White Egret was seen again heading over the channel at dusk and there were 2 Osprey seen, 1 Spoonbill, 10 Greenshank and 2 Green Sandpiper also in the channel.

Nightjar post release after public ringing demo – Canford Heath 

What can we say…it’s not often two majorly exciting events of this magnitude take place on the same day. First and foremost we’re thrilled to announce that our 14 Osprey chicks for this years translocation safely arrived this afternoon at midday and were quickly placed into their new 5 star luxury pens at a secret location within the harbour where our team will now feed and monitor them for 2-3 weeks before releasing them again back out into the harbour. We’d like to say a huge thank you to numerous folk including Jason Fathers at Wildlife Windows who put in place all the infrastructure for the project which was quite a task we can tell you! Poole based fresh fish supplier Seafresh who have again kindly agreed to supply fish to our project to make sure the birds get the best possible start here in Poole. Also Roy Dennis and Tim Mackrill from the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation who were up in Scotland collecting the birds and Emily Joachim and Brittany Maxted who fed and cared for the birds whilst they were being collected. A huge thanks to those members of the public too who have supported either via donations towards the project or have sent us really kind emails of support. With 14 new birds its going to be one hell of a season but we have a great team behind us so we look forward to updating you on the project along the way. Here is the press release we sent out today which gives a fuller overview of the project – READ HERE.

Waders are still making up the bulk of the sightings with 6 Grey Plover, 2 Spotted Redshank, 3 Greenshank and 58 Black-tailed Godwit in Middlebere along with 2 Spoonbill and a fly over Great White Egret. On the Brownsea Lagoon there were 4+ Greenshank, the first returning Knot of the autumn, 1 Little Ringed Plover and a new pair of Avocet with a chick…how long will it last though? On Lytchett Fields 18 Green Sandpiper were spread across the site as were 9 Greenshank, 2 Common Sandpiper and the 1^st Snipe of the autumn back on site. Near Wytch 2 adult Redstart were seen but it’s unclear whether they were early migrants or local breeders.

Oh yeah, the second majorly exciting event to take place today…a certain Football Match. Its all too much!

Osprey chick 006 being placed into its new pen by Tim Mackrill

As the summer of wonder continue and with footy fever in the air, a feeling of optimism seems to be lingering in the heat haze. We’re not sure if its hope to see good birds arrive, or for a certain football team to win a certain football game but either way this week is planned to be a good week. Today it was much of the same with an Osprey out over the mouth of the River Frome. At Holton Pools there was a Green Sandpiper and Greenshank and on Lytchett Fields 1 Little Ringed Plover and 2 Spotted Redshank were reported. We’ve encountered numerous Long-tailed Tit flocks in recent days and in late summer/early autumn these can be good places to find good birds. Already these flocks are containing Chiffchaff (both adults and juv’s), however within the next two weeks lovely lemon yellow Willow Warbler will also be in tow and by early August species such as Redstart, Garden Warbler and Whitethroat often tag along. So, if you hear the high-pitched zee-zee-zee of a Long-tailed Tit train chugging along, be sure you’re stood on the platform watching as it goes by as you never know what may be on board!

As autumn ‘presses on’ more signs of migration appeared today with the first juv Yellow Wagtail of the season found at Lytchett Fields. Through August and September Yellow Wagtail will become a frequent diurnal and nocturnal migrants through the harbour but Lytchett Fields has seen the first arrive in early July for a few years now, even possibly suggesting they could be nesting close by?  Also at Lytchett Fields today were 12 Green Sandpiper, 4 Greenshank, 4 Little Ringed Plover, 3 Common Sandpiper and 1 Grey Plover.  An amazing flock of 16 Bearded Tit also moved through the reedbeds along Lytchett Fields. At Holton Pools the first Kingfisher of the autumn was in front of the hide and a Hobby passed through. In Middlebere this AM a lone Spoonbill was feeding and the/a female Marsh Harrier went through. An Osprey was over the Wareham Channel mid-afternoon and one was seen over Morden Bog again mid-morning.

We also have a series of exciting announcements this week starting off with the news that on July 23^rd 2018 we’ll be hosting the end of the Chris Packham UK Bioblitz Campaign in our Birds of Poole Harbour HQ on Poole Quay between 8pm and 9pm. This important and necessary campaign aims to highlight how damaged and non-productive parts of our environment are across the UK with Chris and his team signing off the 10-day mission here in Poole. For full details about the campaign CLICK HERE. We also have two other announcements we’ll be making over the coming days so be sure to keep an eye on our Social Media pages.  

Bearded Tit – Lytchett Fields – Ian Ballam

Loads of fledged birds can be seen/found around the harbour now. Young Black-headed Gulls are visible at numerous sites certainly on low tides, many of the Sandwich Terns are now up, up and away. On the roofs (and some pavements) around Old Town Poole many young Herring Gull Chicks can be seen wandering around. If you do find a young bird then the chances are the parents are close by, and even though its on the ground they’ll continue to feed it, so don’t worry.

Juvenile Herring Gull – Asda, Holes Bay – John Pick

As autumn progresses the Brownsea Lagoon is definitely a site birders should be watching, noting and getting excited about. The opportunity it provides is huge but it needs almost constant monitoring to get a full appreciation of quite simply how many birds pass through the site over the course of a day, a week or even a month. Today there were 10 freshly arrived Common Sandpiper and 1 juvenile 1 Little Ringed Plover, 2 Greenshank and a Spoonbill. Hangers on from the summer included 2 Bar-tailed Godwit, 21 Black-tailed Godwit, 6 Avocet and 6 Dunlin. There were also 18 fledged Sandwich Tern chicks out of a total of c80 on the lagoon.

There were Osprey in the Wareham Channel and at Morden Bog early morning. At Lytchett Fields a crazy count of 22 Green Sandpiper was almost a record count with 7 Little Ringed Plover, 3 Common Sandpiper, 2 Greenshank and 1 Grey Plover also present.

There are still a few Cuckoo hanging around and the first few juveniles have been seen too with an adult at Middlebere and a juv at Hartland. Although wader passage is picking up it was slim pickings at Brands Bay with 21 Black-tailed Godwit, 28 Curlew, 2 Dunlin and the first 2 Common Gull of the autumn. At Arne an Osprey was resting up on the northern side, which was viewable from Slepe Heath and at dusk our guided walk (hosted in partnership with the National Trust) on Slepe heath saw us witness what could almost be described as a Nightjar epidemic! In all our time watching the harbour I don’t think we’ve ever seen activity quite like this with Nightjar (at times) hovering just a few feet away from us. Incredible scenes!

Sunset on Slepe Heath