Important Info – Our spring bird boat tour tomorrow morning has been postponed due to the weather forecast. A new date will be announced shortly. Guests booked on to the tour will be entitled to a full refund or may remain booked on to the tour for the new date when announced. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause. Can you believe it…no rain for a month then a down pour and strong winds on our premier Spring boat trip!!!! Please call 07711370386 for any further enquiries regarding this event. #maybenexttime

Today started off strangely when a male Wood Duck flew through over the Holton Lee reed bed at around 8:15am. Ok, there are several feral populations around the UK but as far as we can recall there haven’t been any Dorset, let alone Poole Harbour records for this species for a number of years. We also did another survey up the Wareham Channel today too, and although a cold westerly blew we still counted 3 Swift and reasonable numbers of Swallow, House and Sand Martin over Bestwall. There were still plenty of singing Reed and Sedge Warbler along the River Frome walk and 3 Common Sandpiper, 8 Whimbrel and 2 Oystercatcher were around the Swineham area. Out in central harbour it seems all over-wintering wildfowl have now moved on with just c20 Great Crested Grebe hanging on. At Arne both singing Wood Warbler and Redstart were seen down near the Shipstal Wood, with 12 Whimbrel in Middlebere. On Brownsea 32 Common Tern and 62 Sandwich Tern were counted with Bar-tailed Godwit, Ringed Plover, Greenshank, Dunlin, Knot and 80 Med Gulls also recorded. 

Things seemed much quieter today with a Hobby feeding over the Corfe to Studland road, a good number of Whimbrel in Middlebere, 2 Ruff, 2 Common Sandpiper, 1 Little Ringed plover, 3 Whimbrel, 1 Greenshank and 120+ Black-tailed Godwit at Lytchett Fields.

The wind eased off a bit today and a good mixture of species were seen. The Osprey was again in the Wareham Channel. A Cattle Egret was in fields just west of the Stoborough causeway. In Middlebere a good spring count of 22 Grey Plover were feeding on the low tide with c 200 summer plumaged Dunlin, 1 Knot, 2 Ringed Plover, 5 Redshank and c70 Black-tailed Godwit. At Challow Hill there were 5 Whitethroat on territory, 3 Yellowhammer, 7 House martin, 4 Blackcap and a female Stonechat feeding newly fledged chicks. On the Brownsea Lagoon 2 Ringed Plover, 24 Sandwich Tern, 10 Dunlin, 6 Avocet, 1 Knot, 15 Bar-tailed Godwit and 4 Greenshank were counted. At Lytchett Fields there were 3 Ruff, 2 Little Ringed Plover, 2 Common Sandpiper and 7 Dunlin dropped in. At Arne a Cuckoo was singing late afternoon and a Marsh Harrier went over the Wareham Channel.

Ruff – Lytchett Fields – Ian Ballam

The cold wind blew strong today and through any layers trying to prevent frost bite kicking in! The sun did offer some warmth but precious few migrants made their way into the harbour. An Osprey was seen fishing off Swineham Point mid-morning and the Great Grey Shrike was still in the SE corner of Hartland Moor. At Lytchett Fields the 3 Ruff were still on Sherford Pools with 3 Little Ringed Plover, 2 Common Sandpiper and a Greenshank with a Swift over and 1 Garden Warbler, 4 Whitethroat and 3 Willow Warbler in scrub around the site. At Sunnyside Farm there were 5 Wheatear. At Swineham 3 Whimbrel and the Egyptian Goose were on the ‘Curlews’ Cottage paddock with c200 Sand Martin overhead. In more positive news, there was finally some interacting between 2 newly arrived Marsh Harrier in Poole harbour west whilst 2 others watched on. Is it too late for a breeding attempt? We’ll just have to wait and see. 

Little Ringed Plover – Lytchett Fields – Ian Ballam

This evening, something really rare was seen, something we haven’t seen for quite some time…Rain! Along with some building wind from the SW which was just as novel considering northerly winds have dominated since late March/early April. Still, even in a strengthening wind migrants continued to arrive, albeit in smaller numbers. At Arne, where we today started our Dorset Discovery Spring Tour there was Redstart, Hobby, Willow Warbler, Swallow, House Martin, Sand Martin, Blackcap and Tree Pipit as well as the standard 7+ Dartford Warbler, 1 Woodlark, Stonechats, Siskins, Meadow Pipits, Mistle Thrush and Green Woodpecker. Up on Hartland the Great Grey Shrike was still happily feeding from wires in the SE corner of the Moor next to Scotland Farm. Another Cattle Egret was found, this time at Bestwall Meadows. At Swineham the Egyptian Goose was still present behind ‘Curlews’ Cottage with 7 Whimbrel and over the main pit c200 Sand Martin, c30 House Martin and Swallow. At Lytchett Bay there were still 3 Ruff, 3 Little Ringed Plover and 2 Whimbrel.

Dartford Warbler – Hartland moor – Chris Snook

Apparently it’s going to get cold, cold, cold next week, so with today being another blissfully rich spring day, full of birds who knows what next week will have in store for us? Again, today was great for spring migrants, coming in from a whole range of areas. Highlight of the day must go to the Wood Warbler which turned up in a very urban area of Poole north where it happily sang and fed in a line of Oak Trees for 20 minuets before disappearing off. Up on Old Harry totals included 1 Redstart, 1 Cuckoo, 1 Lesser Whitethroat, 5 Common Whitethroat, 5 Wheatear, 7 Willow Warbler, 2 Swallow, 6+ Yellowhammer, 3 Fulmar, 2 Gannet and 7 Guillemot/Razorbill. At Challow Hill several Common Whitethroat are back on territory along with 4+ Blackcap. There were more Cuckoo at Arne (2), Sunnyside (1) and Swineham (1). Over Swineham a herd of 27 Mute Swan flew low east which included the Lodmoor Swan Goose! Between Wareham and Swineham another great count of warblers was made with 34 Reed Warbler, 17 Cetti’s Warbler, 7 Sedge Warbler, 6 Blackcap and 6 Chiffchaff all noted along with 4 Wheatear and 4 Whimbrel out on the grazed floods behind ‘Curlews’ cottage. Up On Hartland a few Wheatear were dotted about with a few more on Hartland Stud. On Arne Moors there was a single Little Ringed Plover. At Arne 2 Yellow Wagtail were in the farm fields. At Lytchett Fields there were 3 Ruff today with 3 Whimbrel, 3 Little Ringed Plover, 2 Whitethroat, 2 Sedge Warbler, 6 Reed Warbler all present and a drake Red-breasted Merganser was in the bay. At South Haven, Studland there were 7 Wheatear, 2 Swift, 35 House Martin and 1 Sand Martin with 2 Dunlin, 1 Greenshank and 6 Whimbrel in Brands Bay. 

Wheatear – Hartland Moor – Paul Morton

Reed Bunting – Swineham – Paul Morton

Again it seemed like migrants were on the move today, or had at least arrived with really good numbers Reed and Sedge Warbler at Swineham/Bestwall. In total 19 Reed Warbler and 17 Sedge Warbler were logged with 14 Cetti’s Warbler, 2 Yellow Wagtail, 1 Whitethroat, 3 Willow Warbler, 2 Whimbrel, 1 Common Sandpiper, c10 Swallow and 1 Egyptian Goose. In Poole Town a Pied Flycatcher was singing in a suburban garden at dawn. Up On Ballard 3 Grasshopper Warbler were reeling, also present were 2 Lesser Whitethroat, 20+ Willow Warbler, 5 Common Whitethroat, 5 Wheatear and 2 Yellow Wagtail over. At Lytchett Bay there were 2 Ringed Plover, 1 Little Ringed Plover, 3 Greenshank and 2 Ruff. We continued with our night monitoring from our Listening Station in Poole and again had a decent list of birds with a fly over Ring Ouzel at 2:53am the highlight, also 3 Common Sandpiper, 1 Green Sandpiper, 2 Bar-tailed Godwit flocks, 1 Water Rail and 1 Moorhen.

 Ring Ouzel – Call of spring night migrant – Old Town Poole Listening Station 22/04/17/ @ 02:53

Common Whitethroat – Old Harry – Paul Morton

Wheatear – Old Harry – Paul Morton

Spring migrant totals are picking up a bit now with numerous arrivals around the harbour. On Hartland Moor a Lesser Whitethroat was singing and Common Whitethroat are now back on territory at Challow Hill. At Lytchett Fields there were 4 Wheatear and Willow Warbler and Chiffchaff numbers continue to increase at many sites around the harbour. Lytchett Bays first Cuckoo of the spring and the bay also saw a decent run of waders in the morning with 23 Bar-tailed Godwit, 4 Whimbrel and 9 Greenshank on the rising tide along with the 2 Ruff out on the fields. The Great Grey Shrike was again in the SE corner of Hartland Moor. On all the heaths Stonechat and Dartford Warbler are in full breeding mode, however when will we hear/see our first Nightjar of the summer? A night recording session from our Listening Station in Old Town Poole produced a good flow of birds during the latter part of the night with 4 flocks of Bar-tailed Godwit, several Common Sandpiper, 3 Dunlin, 3 Grey Plover, 1 Moorhen, 1 Tree Pipit and 5 Song Thrush.

LYTCHETT BAY NOTICE – Please can we remind ALL visitors to Lytchett Fields that there is strictly no access beyond the viewpoints looking over the fields. The new hide structure you can see as you look south is not part of the Lytchett Fields reserve, but is in fact part of the Holton Lee estate. This is an exciting new project we’ve been working on in partnership with Liveability – Holton Lee and we’ll hopefully have more info on that project for you in the near future. We thank-you for your continued support cooperation. 

 Bar-tailed Godwit – Night migrating flock – Old Town Poole Listening Station 21/04/17 @ 02: 12

Meadow Pipit – Hartland Moor

Stonechat – Hartland Moor – Colin Moyes

Surprise of the day today was re-finding the Hartland Great Grey Shrike sat on wires at the south-eastern end of Hartland Moor. It looked quite settled and was happily feeding on beetles and ants.  This is quite a late date for this species, although one did hang around in Dorset in 2013 until April 30^th so we’ll wait and see if it too remains as a long stayer. We also received late news of a Fieldfare in fields down the road from Arne on Wednesday evening which too seems quite late. Migrants were again a bit thin on the ground but Wheatears were still up on Hartland Stud (2) and in the Hartland Sheep/Cattle fields (6). On pools in the Lower Frome Valley 3 Little Ringed Plover were feeding, along Arne Moors and around Swineham/Bestwall good numbers of Reed and Sedge Warbler were still singing. At Hatch Pond a Reed Warbler was singing too. The Great White Egret was again recorded near East Holme Bridge. At Challow Hill the springs first Whitethroat arrived back on territory but still just Blackcap and Chiffchaff the only other migrants. At Lytchett Bay the 2 Ruff were still on the fields and House Martin were gathering mud from the field edges. 

Great Grey Shrike – Hartland Moor