Spring is edging its way into our lives slowly but surely each day and there was a nice selection of birds reported today. At South Haven a fine male White Wagtail on the beach with 2 Wheatear also on Shell Bay beach. There were 54 Sanderling near the house Boats at low tide and single of Great Northern Diver and Black-necked Grebe were in Bramble Bush Bay, also 5 Lesser Redpoll were in trees around the bay.  The last pair of Goldeneye on Poole Park boating lake were seen leaving mid morning before moving off high north. Talking of departing birds yet another Bittern left Swineham at dusk, well in fact this one left in total darkness but was heard calling for several minuets over the gravel pit trying to lure any others out of the reeds before disappearing off north into the darkness. A Swallow dashed through Ridge, but we should really be seeing a few more of these by now and we also set up our sound recording gear at a new nocturnal listening station up on Ballard Down. It sounded promising and we ended up with 208 Redwing Calls, 1 Common Snipe and 1 Oystercatcher but when migration really picks up it could be really good to carry on doing night listening up there. At Arne, Dartford Warbler were enjoying the sunshine and 2 Spoonbill were in the Middlebere channel. 

Great and sad news today; first the good news. The harbours first Osprey of the spring was seen and photographed in Poole Harbour today with an un-ringed bird seen hunting briefly in Lytchett Bay before being chased off by Herring Gulls. This will hopefully now be the floodgates well and truly opened with many more passing through over late March and April. Now some sad news; we recently received information that the rings of one of our Osprey chicks from last years translocation had been found down in the Gambia. Other than that we didn’t know much more. Well, this evening we were sent photos of LS6’s corpse which had been found in the Kartong region of the Gambia. The local people that found LS6’s body couldn’t see any signs or cause of death so it could have been one of one hundred reasons ranging from Eagle Owl attack to exhaustion. The fact it had made it all the way down to the Gambia showed it was strong enough to make its first migration south, and to an extremely popular area for over-wintering Osprey too. It’s just sad it couldn’t see the winter through. However, we’ve now had information back relating to three of our eight chicks (LS3, LS6 and LS7) from this first winter alone, which despite the outcome for one of them, is an unbelievable return rate. Lets hope LS3 and LS7 continue to thrive down in Western Senegal. Elsewhere around the harbour a new immature Hen Harrier was seen bombing around the west Wareham Channel area with the other juv male seen too. Off Shipstal there were 3 Great Northern Diver still and there had been a mini fall of Chiffchaff around the harbour with birds singing along Soldiers Road, Hartland and at Arne. 

Osprey – Lytchett Bay – Ian Ballam

Osprey – Lytchett Bay – Ian Ballam

Osprey chick LS6’s corpse found down in the Gambia recently

Brownsea is still very productive (not surprising as it still thinks its winter), and now that the island is ‘open for business’ there’s no reason why you shouldn’t go over and indulge one last time before the winter is out. There were 800+ Black-tailed Godwit, 182 Avocet, 65 Grey Plover, 1 Spoonbill, 40+ Bar-tailed Godwit, 3 Greenshank, 1 Spotted Redshank and still a number of Brent Geese, Pintail and Shoveler. At Swineham 4 Sand Martin were feeding early morning. Off the southern shore of Brownsea a Black-necked Grebe was feeding and a scattering of Red-breasted Merganser were still present. Rain set in by late afternoon and it all then went quiet!

Another (and the last of the winter season) school bird boat headed out today and tallied up 3 different Great Northern Diver out in central harbour. In Lytchett Bay there were 32 Avocet and the single Grey Plover still with highlights from Lytchett Fields consisting of 1 Spotted Redshank. We also received news from local harrier watcher Peter Hadrill today that the adult male Hen Harrier and female left the harbour high north two mornings ago with the young male leaving yesterday morning too which was sad for a whole host of reasons. One, because it’s never nice to see them go, but secondly, their fate away from safe havens like Poole Harbour is a horrid unknown. This winter has been exceptionally good for Hen Harriers here in the harbour with up to 7 different individual birds visiting (albeit very briefly) the area in recent months. Post New Year, roosts of 4 to 5 birds have been regular and views from elsewhere around the harbour abundant! A huge well done to Peter for keeping a track on each of their movements, arrivals and departures over a very long, cold winter period and for gathering such an important and valuable data set.

Things were a little quieter today but a school bird boat picked up 1 Great Northern Diver and 4 Black-necked Grebe in the Bramble Bush Bay area. There were 3 Spoonbill, 1 Merlin and 5 Spotted Redshank in Middlebere and a Firecrest in the Arne car park.  

Another nice snippet of spring today as 2 Swallow dashed through over Hartland Moor with a Spoonbill feeding out in the Wareham Channel and 2 male and a female Hen Harrier were seen in that area too. There were 2 summer plumaged Black-necked Grebe in Studland Bay with 1 pale-bellied Brent Goose and 61 dark-bellied Brents. In Lytchett Bay there was a single Grey Plover (scarce here). At Holton Lee a Crossbill was photographed and 2 Green Sandpiper were on Holton Pools. Hamish Murray from DWT conducted a full Brownsea Lagoon count today with highlights consisting of 185 Avocet, 2 Spotted Redshank, 6 Greenshank, 45+ Knot, 690 Dunlin, 1 Sanderling, 220 Grey Plover, 435 Black-tailed Godwit, 130 Bar-tailed Godwit, 22 Med Gulls, 7 Sandwich Tern, 44 Shoveler, 1 Kingfisher, 2 Sand Martin, 2 Lesser Redpoll, 1 Firecrest and a singing Chiffchaff. Finally, Swineham played host to 3 more departing Bittern tonight which were the 4^th, 5^th and 6^th to leave that area in just over a week. Over the last 18 months we’ve been conducting a full ‘Herons of Poole Harbour’ study, which will be published this spring. It will feature feeding, roosting, breeding and over wintering behaviour of Grey Heron, Little Egret, Great White Egret, Cattle Egret, Bittern and Spoonbill. 

The Holton Pools scrape had its first Little Ringed Plover of the spring. Sunnyside Farm had an impressive 13 Golden Plover and hundreds of Fieldfare and Redwing still. The Spotted Redshank was still at the PC World outflow in Holes Bay NE. There were also 2000+ Fieldfare and Redwing on the Stoborough Heath Nature Reserve. 

The cold really got birds moving with 4 Golden Plover at Lytchett Fields and a 1^stRinged Plover of the year there too. At Middlebere there were another 2 Golden Plover, plus the over-wintering Whimbrel, lots of Redwing and Fieldfare still and 3 Chiffchaff along the track. Upton CP was busy with birds along the northern shore towards Holes Bay NE with the Spotted Redshank in its usual place, bust still good numbers of Black-tailed Godwit, Redshank, Curlew and Dunlin, also Pintail and Wigeon still about. At Arne there were 5 Brambling at the feeders next to the visitors centre and a Wheatear was on Shipstal early evening and a ringtail Hen Harrier at Middlebere, also 2 Woodcock flushed near the car park. A single Hawfinch was still at St Mary’s churchyard, Wareham. A Red Kite drifted along South Haven at dawn. 

Well, the snow came back with a dump last night. Not quite as bad as a few weeks ago but still enough for many birds to adopt emergency landings and take cover. Fieldfare were abundant again with flocks of hundreds feeding in numerous fields where the snow hadn’t quite managed provide a full covering. Redwing and Meadow Pipit were also downed in good numbers and Stonechats had obviously been moving through too but had been grinded to a halt with individuals appearing in Poole Park, Holes Bay, Baiter, and Sandbanks.  At Arne there had been a mini Brambling arrival behind the visitors hut with a few feeding in amongst the Chaffinch and Goldfinch on the floor. Spotted Redshank were in Holes Bay and on Lytchett Fields with 1 each of Green Sandpiper and Greenshank at the latter site. Singles of Wheatear were at Sunnyside and Shipstal Beach, Arne. Ringtail Hen Harrier were seen at Lytchett Bay and Swineham with a Marsh Harrier out in the Wareham Channel too.  At St Mary’s in Wareham there was still a single female Hawfinch present. At Holton Lee there was a first year Spoonbill feeding in front of the new hide on Holton Pools plus a Water Pipit and several Meadow Pipit. In Holes Bay NW, 14 Golden Plover seen out from the Stone Bench was another indicator of downed birds due to the snow. 

Brambling – RSPB Arne car park – Peter Moore

Wheatear – Sunnyside Farm – Peter Moore

Snow…again! It didn’t seem to amount to too much but it’s supposed to build over night. It didn’t stop it from being blimmin cold though and enough to keep most people in doors. You’d fully understand if most spring migrants just ‘didn’t bother’ today, however a hardy first Swallow of the spring appeared with 2 Sand Martin at Swineham GP, with a back drop of 120 Fieldfare to counter balance the seasonal interest.  A male Hen Harrier was seen at Arne and Middlebere mid afternoon and also seen by the Wareham causeway. At Holes Bay the low tide and cold weather saw a small increase of birds with Avocet, Redshank, Curlew, Pintail, Wigeon and a few Gadwall all fairly easy to see from the footpath.