An interesting report came from a sighting several hundred miles north of Poole Harbour today, when it was confirmed that the male Osprey S1 which has been at Arne/Poole Harbour all summer has ventured back north again to his natal area of Rutland Water. Moving north for the autumn seems a strange behaviour for an Osprey but an identical situation occurred last year when another Rutland 2^nd summer male over-summered in the New Forest, only to leave on July 26^th and arrive back at Rutland on July 27^th. It seems they can’t stay away from their natal areas and was perhaps interested to see what had happened on his home patch this summer before venturing back south again properly for the winter? On Brownsea there were 2 Spotted Redshank and 2 more Garden Warbler ringed at Fleets Corner, near Holes Bay. At Lytchett Fields there were 28 Dunlin, 4 Common Sandpiper, 17 Green Sandpiper and an adult Yellow-legged Gull in the bay. The 2 dark-bellied Brent Geese that were in the Wytch Channel earlier in the month are still there and more signs of autumn included 16 Common Gull back in Brands Bay with 13 Whimbrel and 1 Greenshank. In Bramble Bush Bay there were 2 Common Sandpiper and 2 Whimbrel. In Middlebere there were 2 Spotted Redshank and 5 Greenshank. 

Garden Warbler – Fleets Corner – Olly Slessor 

Another yucky summers day, just prime for the summer holidays! At Arne an Osprey was sat in the dead trees at Middlebere early morning. At Lytchett Fields there were 22 Dunlin, 3 Common Sandpiper, 1 Little Ringed Plover and 17 Green Sandpiper. A very wet and windy boat trip around the harbour saw plenty of newly fledged Common Tern out feeding near the harbour entrance, a fresh juv Peregrine Falcon was up to no good on the Brownsea Lagoon, although its obvious lack of any kind of hunting skills made it quite clear all waders and terns were safe. Several Great Crested Grebe were out in central harbour and a Kingfisher was in Holes Bay.

Osprey Translocation Update

We’re now up to six birds using the perching posts on and off and its looking like a release next week some time is on the cards. Some foul weather over the coming weekend may delay things slightly but we’re hoping to at least get everything set up and in place ready for the big day(s). 

LS0 and LS1 enjoying the Poole Harbour sunset

August is slowly but surely creeping up on us…the month of true variety. It tends to be that you can see more species of bird in Poole Habour during August than any other month in the year and signs are already showing it could be a busy month. Waders are already flowing through with 8 Common Sandpiper feeding on the Holton shoreline, good numbers of Whimbrel feeding in numerous bays around the harbour, 2 Spotted Redshank on the Brownsea Lagoon, and Redshank, Black-tailed Godwit and Dunlin numbers on the increase. In the Wareham Channel 5 Spoonbill were feeding on the low tide with around 80 Little Egret in the area. At Holton Pools the colour-ringed Greenshank that first appeared at Lytchett Fields last year was close enough for a decent photo, and at Lytchett Fields there were c20 Green Sandpiper, 2 Common Sandpiper, c50 Redshank, c60 Black-tailed Godwit and 9 Dunlin on the fields with a Woodlark flushed there too. At Arne there was another Osprey, this one a tatty looking individual which doesn’t seem to be S1 the 2-year old male that’s spent all summer at Arne.

Colour-ringed Greenshank – Holton Pools – Ian Ballam

It was another good day for birds today with a bit of an autumn/winter vibe. The first returning Wigeon of the autumn popped up in Lytchett Bay early morning, which is a pretty early date. Normally we’d expect the first to return around mid to late August, so whether this bird has really returned from the far north of Europe or from somewhere a bit closer to home we’ll never know. Continuing with the wintery theme a raft of 8 Common Scoter were out in central harbour with 2 males and 6 females bobbing along off Arne. 5 Spoonbill were roosting up on the Keysworth shoreline on the high tide, which may explain why they’ve gone missing from Brownsea recently and over Swineham a Hobby was hunting over recently cut hay fields. This could be one of the pair from Arne or one a pair from further up the Frome Valley. There were some signs of passerine passage this morning with 1 Garden Warbler, 3 Willow Warbler, 1 Reed Warbler, several Chiffchaff and 4 Blackcap ringed at Fleets Corner in Poole Harbour north. Lytchett Fields was busy again with Green Sandpiper with 21 counted along with 1 Little Ringed Plover, 1 Common Sandpiper, 1 Common Snipe and 9 Dunlin out on the fields. Out over the Wareham Channel 2 Osprey were circling together in the wind before drifting off towards Arne with 2 Marsh Harrier seen in and around the mouth of the river Frome, near Swineham. Along the Studland Road at the Corfe end a large gathering of c100 Swift were actively feeding.

Garden Warbler – Fleets Corner

Osprey Translocation Update

We now have up to five of the chicks using the perching bars at the front of the pens with LS2 having a bit of a go today too but then promptly flapped and fell off. Not a bad effort, but must try harder! We were testing out the tiny tail mounted tracking tags today too which we’ll be fitting to the birds in the coming days ready for when they’re released. Being able to locate, monitor and track the birds after they’ve been released is essential and these tiny receivers will allow us to know roughly at anyone time which direction each bird is and close they are. They will only allow us to track the birds whilst they’re in the harbour and once they leave we’ll lose signal and the tags will moult out with the feathers in several weeks. We’re also beginning to up the size of fish pieces the birds are getting as each now seems to be using their talons to tear bits of meat to eat, rather than eating the smaller chunks we’ve been providing. The plan is to get them seeing and eating larger pieces now to the point we can just place out whole fish for them to enjoy. They don’t even know how lucky they are! 

It was nice to have some variety today with more migrants beginning to appear, although we have to start with the bad news, which is that sadly (and almost inevitably) all 4 of the Avocet chicks have disappeared. A vigil across the Brownsea Lagoon today retuned no sightings of our most recent arrivals, and it’s looking as if we’re going to have to wait another year before the most elegant of waders successfully breeds on Brownsea. Give it time and we’re sure they will, but you can’t help but feel for the poor parents after investing so much time in incubating and hatching them. There were 11 adult Avocet on the lagoon today with 3 Spotted Redshank, 1 Turnstone, 2 Common Sandpiper and most amazingly of all, a family of Shoveler duck. This species is rarely ever confirmed as a breeder in Dorset so to see a row of ducklings following their mother was a real treat for the observers. Lytchett Fields was busy with 70+ Reed Warbler, 25+ Sedge Warbler, 2 Willow Warbler, 10 Greenshank, 9 Dunlin, 8 Common Sandpiper and 16 Green Sandpiper across the site. South Haven at Studland saw the autumns first Garden Warbler moving through with a family of Spotted Flycatcher (1 adult, 2 juvs), 1 Sedge Warbler and 3 Willow Warbler. Finally, the Hobby nest cam in the Arne visitors centre is an absolute must to go and see. Crystal clear images of one of the most spectacular birds EVER, feeding their young…..just stunning!

Photo of the TV screen at Arne showing adult Hobby feeding chicks.

In Other (we mean Osprey) news, all pretty much the same at the moment with the birds happily gazing out across Poole Harbour whilst being fed plenty of the best local fish possible. All are now really strong in the wing and we estimate 5-6 days before all are perched up on their perching bars at the front of their pens ready to be released. We’re beginning to look at long-term weather forecasts so we can give our birds the best possible chances upon release. Foul weather and wind is a big no-no, so we’re looking for a decent gap in the weather for when we open the pens, and fortunately its not looking too bad in the near future!

As of this morning there are now 3 Osprey chicks perched up in their pens with more to surely follow in the coming days. LS6 has joined LS0 and LS1 in being part of the hierarchy as they look down on their fellow ‘pen partners’ from above. Each of the 8 Osprey chicks are still feeding brilliantly and their plumages are looking fresh and perfect and we can’t wait for the moment we’re finally able to open the pens where each bird will become a true asset to the harbour. In the mean time our volunteers continue to work hard in monitoring and feeding the birds and we can’t thank them enough…they’ve done a truly sterling job. 

Sightings were pretty quite today with a tough breeze blowing over the recording area. At Swineham there were still Sedge Warbler feeding young and good numbers of Reed Warbler along the river edge. At Lytchett Fields a Spotted Redshank was out on the fields with c40 Common Redshank, 2 Common Sandpiper and 5 Green Sandpiper, although there were probably more. Within the next week passerines as well as waders will begin passing through in bigger numbers with warblers, chats and flycatchers pulsing through and we’re always really keen to hear about where people are seeing different species. So please email, tweet or Facebook us with your sightings from around the harbour. 

Sedge Warbler – Lytchett Bay – Ian Ballam

It’s these kind of days where you’re better off tucked up inside with a good book or decent film as the July rain outside lashes against the window. West Dorset was boasting a stupendous list of birds, with Cory’s and Great Shearwaters seen off Portland, which then prompted us to venture down to Middle Beach, Studland to have a precautionary look to make sure we weren’t missing out on these Dorset mega’s. As it transpired…we weren’t. Rain kept making viewing difficult but 8 Gannet and 8 Common Scoter were the best we could muster plus 37 Med Gulls in Studland Bay which included 11 fresh juveniles too. At Arne a Hobby was active chasing down Swallows in between rain showers. At Lytchett Fields a small flock of 16 Dunlin, including 1 juvenile were new in with 3 each of Common Sandpiper and Greenshank.

Today the Osprey chicks stayed pretty inactive as rain lashed down but both LS0 and LS1 are now using the front perching posts continuously. Apart from some irregular wing flapping there’s not much change in the other 2 pens.

Last night we set our night recording gear up for the first time this autumn, and seeing that big(ish) numbers of waders are already on the move across the UK it could have been a productive night. Sadly…it wasn’t! Well, 2 Common Sandpiper, 2 Curlew, 1 Whimbrel and several Grey Heron were the best of it, but being as its still only mid/late July there’s plenty of time left to scan our sky’s at night for all those passing birds. In Middlebere an Osprey was seen briefly with 2 potentially seen over the Wareham Channel from Lytchett Bay.

This evening both our Osprey chicks LS0 and LS1 took to their perching bar, which is a good indication they’re beginning to think about their first flights. Tim Mackrill will be coming down next week to take a look at all eight birds where we’ll then go on to make a plan for all of their releases in the coming days/weeks. 

Common Sandpiper calls of night time migrant & Sika squeaks, Piddle Valley – 20/07/19 @ 03:31 

It seems our Osprey chicks are getting just as excited about the autumn as we are, with both us and them soon to be thinking about nothing else other migration, migration, migration. For us, it’s a leisurely experience as we sit back and enjoy the many species of bird that pass through Poole Harbour in their droves all heading south for the winter. The passage of warblers, chats, hirundines, waders and finches of many different species will see us all with binoculars permanently glued to our eye sockets for the foreseeable future whilst we also begin our autumn nocturnal listening study too. This audible study began two years ago as a bit of a test to see what’s migrating over our head’s as we’re all tucked up in bed. Within a year we’d already helped make quite a remarkable discovery in partnership with The Sound Approach, which was that from mid August through to mid September Ortolan Bunting, a very rare and scarce bird in a Poole Harbour/Dorset context is/was in fact a regular night migrant over Poole. You can read about the discovery HERE. With big numbers of waders already moving across the UK, we’ll be putting our recording equipment out for the first time this autumn tonight. We’ll let you know how we get on.  The Osprey chicks on the other hand have got their own migration to consider and they won’t have the luxury of being able to watch from the sidelines. As you can see from our most recent monitoring footage, some are really now getting strong in the wing flying/hopping from perch to post and back again. Currently its LS0 and LS1 who are the most advanced but hopefully within the next 5 days the others will be at the same stage and we can begin to think out the opening of the pens. We’ll be meeting with our partners in the project, The Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation early next week to discuss the exciting next phase.

Today in the harbour there were 3 Roseate Tern on the Brownsea Lagoon again, with 2 on the Common Tern nesting island and 1 on the ‘Boomerang’. The Avocet family struck another blow as it now looks as if they’re down from 4 chicks to 2. This was always going to be a precarious situation with so many gulls about but hey…that’s nature. All we can hope is that Avocet breeding attempts rise over the coming years and the potential for successful fledging increases. Also on Brownsea were 6 Greenshank, 1 Spotted Redshank, 1 Ringed Plover, 22 Dunlin, 4 Curlew, 2 Whimbrel, 8 Common Sandpiper, 11 Avocet, 118 Redshank, 55 Black-tailed Godwit and 1 Bar-tailed Godwit on the north shore. At Lytchett Fields there was a record count of 24 Green Sandpiper with 4 Spoonbill, 4 Common Sandpiper, 112 Redshank, 67 Lapwing, 66 Black-tailed Godwit, 7 Dunlin, 4 Greenshank and 3 Whimbrel in the bay. On the southern edge of the Wareham Channel 4 Spoonbill roosted with 83 Dunlin and c100 Black-tailed Godwit as 48 Little Egret flew into roost. 

The flying begins! LS0 looking really strong on the wing