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

Not that we thought it was possible but today was even foggier with almost zero visability. There was a possible penguin out in central harbour, but then again it could have been Robin?

Today there was fog…and lots of it. The only known highlights were a Merlin seen chasing a Meadow Pipit at Holton Lee and 2 Spoonbill and a Spotted Redshank in Holes Bay

So with the total lack of any birding opportunities we’ve provided two short write ups relating to areas recently featured on Winterwatch. The first is a look into the current Starling murmuration and its history at Studland and the second is a a delve into the Woodcock research we’re currently conducting in Poole Harbour with the Stour Ringing Group.

Wow, what a run of great weather we’re experiencing at the moment. If there was ever a day to be out then today would have been it. Vigils from Slepe Heath saw a Hen Harrier, 4 Marsh Harrier and a Bittern out over Arne moors and the Piddle Valley. At Lytchett Bay/Fields there were singles of Jack Snipe, Spotted Redshank, Green Sandpiper and the Lesser Yellowlegs was out in the bay. At Swineham there were 2 Jack Snipe off the point, 1 Marsh Harrier and up to 16 Bearded Tit in the reedbeds. At Norden Sewage Works the Siberian Chiffchaff was again on the filter beds with 15 Common Chiffchaff and a Firecrest was in the near by park and ride car park. Over Arne Moors, viewed from Slepe Heath a ringtail Hen Harrier and a Marsh Harrier were seen near dusk. Our first proper Woodcock ringing session of 2017 saw c20 birds present at our site near Hartland Moor but only 3 were caught and ringed. The redhead Smew is still in Holes Bay SE and there were 13 Spoonbill on Shipstal Point, Arne. The Starling murmurations at Studland attracted a crowd of up to 300+ people. Interestingly, this is a historic Starling roosting site with totals varying year on year. Thanks to Phyl England for her photo of a murmuration that took place during the winter period of 2006/07. At Arne up to 10 Firecrest have been reported around the reserve. Out in Ower Bay the 14 Barnacle Geese still seem to be happy hanging out with the Canada Geese.

Historical Starling murmuration FEB 2007 at Shell Bay, Studland – Phyl England