As the stormy winds blew, a sea watch at Branksome proved fruitful with c50 Red-throated Diver most passing west, also 7-8 Great Northern Diver, 1 Black-throated Diver, c10 Gannet, 5 Common Scoter, 3 Fulmar, c20 Brent Geese, 3 Med Gulls, 1 Shelduck and plenty of auks (looked most to be Razorbill). Only other news from a blowy wet day was the Lesser Yellowlegs was on Lytchett Fields and the Kingfishers in Poole Park continue to impress. 

Kingfisher – Poole Park

A few snippets of interest with a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker seen and heard near the car park at Upton CP, 9 Black-necked Grebe and a Slavonian Grebe off Middle beach, 3 ringtail Hen Harrier in Poole harbour west a Red-throated Diver in Studland Bay. Off Branksome Chine 187 Great Crested Grebe were in several flocks with 5 Razorbill, 6 Red-throated Diver, 1 Common Scoter and a Sandwich Tern passing.  

A lull in the weather saw some good coverage a really great Poole Harbour find. A Snow Bunting was found near Studland Bay before disappearing north around 10:30am. Snow Bunting can be incredibly tricky to catch up with in Poole Harbour so its hoped it could have come down again somewhere within the harbour, perhaps Shell Bay/South Haven area? Apparently it had also been noted in the Brands Bay diary for last week too? Out in Brands Bay just a single Greenshank, 50+ Curlew and 336 Shelduck were of note. In Shell Bay, 3 Slavonian Grebe, 1 male Common Scoter, 1 Great Northern Diver and 40-50 Sanderling were counted whilst off Middle Beach just a single Red-breasted Merganser was seen. At Norden Sewage Works 2 Siberian Chiffchaff were with c15 Common Chiffchaff and a Firecrest feeding on the filter beds. At Middlebere 2 Marsh Harrier, 1 Peregrine, 1 Spotted Redshank and c500 Avocet were present and at Swineham/Bestwall there was 1 Marsh Harrier, 2 Spoonbill feeding in mouth of the Frome, 14 Barnacle Geese were on the pits, and a good number of Lapwing, Black-tailed Godwit and Dunlin are still enjoying the flooded areas of the Lower Frome Valley. The Poole Park Boating Lake is still semi-drained and a Kingfisher was seen with several Redshank, Black-tailed Godwit and Oystercatcher all on the mud. At Lytchett Bay a ringtail Hen Harrier flew through and Skylarks were singing in the Arable Field. At the end of Lytchett Heath, Bearded Tits were calling from the reedbed and on the heath Dartford Warbler were active and a big increase of Lapwing was noted on Lytchett Fields with 473 counted also the Lesser Yellowlegs, 1 Marsh Harrier, 2 Water Pipit, 609 Dunlin and 4 Greenshank present. There were 3 different ringtail Hen Harrier in Poole Harbour west late in the afternoon. 

Water Rail feeding with Blackbird – Lytchett Fields – Ian Ballam

As the rain continued to fall, the river valley’s continued to fill and it attracted many birds. On Arne Moors (viewed from Slepe Heath) up to 700 Lapwing, c200 Curlew, c300 Black-tailed Godwit, 100+ Dunlin, 1 Spotted Redshank, 14 Barnacle Geese, 30+ Shoveler, 20+ Gadwall, 200+ Teal and 10+ Wigeon. At 8:30am what looked like 80% of the Studland Starling flock all passed low over Holme Bridge, heading west before settling in some flooded fields to drink, before upping and leaving again. Along Holme Lane, there are now 12 Little Egret back in the cattle fields, but no Cattle Egret. There is however a decent sized finch flock with a few hundred Chaffinch and Goldfinch, well worth scanning through for Brambling or Yellowhammer in the coming weeks. The Lesser Yellowlegs was still on French’s Pools and the Smew was in Holes Bay NE with a male Goldeneye. Tonight we also went around the urban areas of Poole looking at the wet open grass areas to see what feeds here during the night. At Baiter Park, 2 Jack Snipe were feeding on the edges of some large pools with 2 Dunlin and at Hamworthy Park 2 Ringed Plover were feeding on the main field. 

Yet more fog and straining of eyes to try and find some decent birds, but interestingly fog on the southern shores cleared quite quickly allowing a count of 16 Black-necked Grebe to be made of South Beach. The Poole Park boating lake held 5 Redshank, 6 Black-tailed Godwit, several Oystercatcher, 1 Greenshank, 10 Dunlin, 3 Red-breasted Merganser, 5 Goldeneye and 4 Little Grebe. On the Brownsea Lagoon 3 Spoonbill were feeding close to our cameras and at Upton CP the Ruff was still feeding with 800+ Black-tailed Godwit on the eastern end of the park. Once the fog cleared 3 Woodlark broke out into song at Arne. At Lytchett Fields there was a strange sight of 22 Avocet swimming around on French’s Pools. A Sandwich Tern was on Hamworthy Park and at the PC World Drain still at least 30 Chiffchaff were along the length of the channel, including the ringed Siberian Chiffchaff. At Greenlands Farm, Studland a good number of Lapwing, Curlew, Oystercatcher and Redshank were on the flooded fields. The Lesser Yellowlegs was also on Lytchett Fields. A night ringing session in the Lower Frome Valley saw a big increase in Jack Snipe with 10+ seen and a few ringed, along with 8 Woodcock seen. 

Its felt like a while since we’ve had a good spout of rain and todays down pour did a good job at topping up the river valley’s and open grassy areas, making pools and scrapes available for birds to paddle about in. It will be well worth checking these areas over the coming days to see what get drawn to them. Sightings from today were fairly limited with a ringtail Hen Harrier at Lytchett Bay, the redhead Smew still at Holes Bay NE and the boating Lake at Poole Park begging to host good numbers of birds as its been drained. The gull roost on Brownsea is well worth a watch on our new HD Brownsea webcam, surely, SURELY a Glaucouse or Iceland Gull will put on a performance in the next few weeks??

Screen grab of Gull roost on the Brownsea Lagoon 

Today we hosted our first ever Birds of Poole Harbour public bird boat. All previous trips we’ve done have always been in partnership with RSPB, DWT, NT etc so it was nice to see so many people happily coming to support ‘us smaller guys’ too. The trip was great consider the weather of previous days and highlights included 2 Great Northern Diver off the Brownsea SE shore, 14 Barnacle Geese on Rempstone fields along the southern shore, several Black-necked Grebe in central harbour and South Deep, 11 Spoonbill on Shipstal and 3 on Brownsea Lagoon, a Marsh Harrier near Long Island as well as good numbers of Red-breasted Merganser, Goldeneye and Great Crested Grebe. The lagoon was looking fab with 3 Spotted Redshank, 4 Greenshank, 199 Grey Plover, 34 Knot, 181 Bar-tailed Godwit, 291 Avocet, 5 Pintail, 41 Shoveler, 57 Gadwall, 16 Brent Geese, 1 Yellow-legged Gull, 1 Sandwich Tern, 3 Med Gulls, 1 Kingfisher, 1 Sparrowhawk and a Buzzard as well as the commoner waders and wildfowl. In the Wareham Channel, 2 Marsh Harrier went into roost and 2 ringtail Hen Harrier were in the Arne Moors/Bestwall area. 3 Woodcock were seen flying out to feed at dusk along Slepe Moor. The Lesser Yellowlegs was on French’s Pools, Lytchett Fields and there was a single Black-necked Grebe in Shell Bay. At Greenlands Farm, Studland there was a flock of 13 Lesser Redpoll, 1 Firecrest and a single Crossbill. The Smew was still in Holes Bay north. There were another 2 Great Northern Diver on the seaward side of Studland and finally, a night ringing session near Sunnyside Farm produced 1 Jack Snipe, 2 Common Snipe and a single Woodcock seen. 

Brent Geese over the harbour – Simon Kidner

Common Scoter – North Channel – Simon Kidner

Great Northern Diver – South Deep, near Brownsea SE – Simon Kidner

A slightly warmer day with the sun poking its head out and another school bird boat group eager to get out. With a calmer sea it made things far more pleasant in the end with the highlights being 14 Barnacle Geese on Rempstone, 1 Great Northern Diver off Brownsea, 4 Spoonbill on Brownsea, 1 Black-necked Grebe in central harbour and 3 Seals (2 Common, 1 Grey). A sea watch from Branksome Chine produced a great total of 44 Red-throated Diver past , also 28 auk sp likely to be Razorbill considering the numbers passing Portland at present), 1 Common Scoter, 2 Red-breasted Merganser and 8 Great Crested Grebe. The Yellow-browed Warbler at Cabot Lane was seen again and there were still c30 Chiffchaff in the PC World drain and c20 at Norden Sewage Works. The Smew was still in Holes Bay north and the Lesser Yellowlegs on French’s Pools, Lytchett Fields. 

Redhead Smew – Holes Bay north east – Ian Ballam

No Fog but a cold ESE wind sent a chill right through our bones this morning as a hardy group from Heatherland’s Primary School gritted their teeth and ‘enjoyed’ a whole variety of species from todays school bird boat including 14 Barnacle Geese near Green Island, 1 Great Northern Diver, 2 Black-necked Grebe, 1 Common Scoter, 1 Hen Harrier, c50 Goldeneye, c200 Red-breasted Merganser and 10 Spoonbill, including 8 next to Robo-Spoony! Along Holes Bay 2 Jack Snipe were flushed from long grass verges near the cycle path and the redhead Smew was in Holes Bay NE trying to disguise its self as a Wigeon. Yet another Yellow-browed Warbler was found this AM feeding on a grass verge on Cabot Lane, Poole. How many more will get found this winter? On Lytchett Fields there were 4 Spoonbill and the Lesser Yellowlegs whilst a male Marsh Harrier passed over the site. Of Old Harry Rocks a flock of 9 Red-throated Diver passed east with a good run of Razorbill, Gannet, several Kittiwake and Fulmar noted too. 

Redhead Smew – Holes Bay – Ian Ballam

Well it only took 3 days but the fog finally cleared around midday providing a couple of hours birding time before it got dark. Not much reported other than a high number of Chiffchaff now in the PC World Drain as c30 birds fed on small insect along with a ringed Firecrest. From Hamworthy Beach the usual open water species were loafing around with rafts of Red-breasted Merganser, Goldeneye and Great Crested Grebe all together. There were 4 Spoonbill on the Brownsea Lagoon where we now have not one but TWO webcams including a new HD stream. At Lytchett Bay a Barn Owl was out hunting off Otter Point and the Lesser Yellowlegs was feeding in the bay. A night ringing session in the Lower Frome Valley saw c20 Woodcock (4 ringed), 3 Jack Snipe (1 ringed) and plenty of Common Snipe.

Jack Snipe – Lower Frome Valley – Paul Morton