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Poole Harbour sightings blog

A record of all interesting and notable sightings from around the harbour throughout the year.

Latest Sightings

Harbour Update – posted 07/10/16

Posted on: October 8th, 2016 by Birds of Poole Harbour

The dark overcast sky and spits of rain at dawn, combined with the constant NE got some passage going with a viewpoint in Poole Harbour north counting 720 House Martin, 12 Jay, 32 Greenfinch, 18 Goldfinch, 20 Siskin, 43 Meadow Pipit, 2 Sparrowhawk, 1 Kestrel, 1 Buzzard, 58 Song Thrush, 5 Redwing, 2 Skylark, 1 Woodcock at dawn and 3 Great Spotted Woodpecker. At South Haven another vis-mig session logged 295 Redwing, 28 Song Thrush, 103 Meadow Pipit, 261 Siskin, 154 Goldfinch, 353 House Martin and 52 Swallow. Our night sound recording session also indicated a switch from Song Thrush to Redwing being the most encountered with 402 Redwing calls, 236 Song Thrush calls, 41 Blackbird calls, another 3 Ring Ouzel and 4 Meadow Pipit. At Baiter a male Greenland type Wheatear was on the beach and 16 Common Scoter were off the beach before flying back out to sea. In the Wareham Channel a Great White Egret flew west and a Marsh Harrier quartered the Frome Mouth. At Lytchett Bay the Lesser Yellowlegs was out in the bay, showing it wasn’t too disgruntled with all the work going on at Lytchett Fields. Also in Lytchett Bay was 1 Spoonbill, 4 Greenshank, 5 Curlew Sandpiper, 130+ Dunlin. In Poole Harbour north, incredibly a fourth Yellow-browed Warbler was ringed in just three days. Finally, a record was broken today with the UK’s largest ever flock of Spoonbill gathering on Shipstal Point, Arne with 60 in a tight flock. Although 60 were present in the harbour for a short time in October 2015, they were never all in the same flock.

Lesser Yellowlegs – Lytchett Bay – Ian Ballam

Lesser Yellowlegs – Lytchett Bay – Ian Ballam

Harbour Update – posted 06/10/16

Posted on: October 7th, 2016 by Birds of Poole Harbour

The morning got off to a great start when a ringing session at one of our sites in Poole Harbour north produced not one, but two Yellow-browed Warbler and an adult male Ring Ouzel. Coupled with a Cetti’s Warbler and 31 Chiffchaff it was a great morning. Even more bizarre was a Pink-footed Goose that passed over Hatch Pond mid morning calling away. At Arne there were reports of between 3-5 Yellow-browed Warbler dotted around the reserve and the Spoonbill flock reached 56. Night recording was much quieter from last night with just 124 Song Thrush, 5 Redwing, 14 Blackbird, 1 Common Snipe, 1 Sandwich Tern, 1 Ringed Plover and 16 Meadow Pipit. 

Ring Ouzel – Poole Harbour north – Terry Elborn

 

Yellow-browed Warbler – Poole Harbour north 

Harbour Update – posted 05/10/16

Posted on: October 6th, 2016 by Birds of Poole Harbour

There was an obvious passage of Song Thrush this morning with birds moving across the harbour, following different flight lines. Around 100 went over Lytchett Fields with another c300 moving north across the harbour mouth. Also counted at South Haven were 36 Redwing, 54 Siskin, 2 Common Snipe and a good hirundine passage. Our night sound recording session also picked up 1544 Song Thrush calls throughout the night along with 61 Redwing and 40 Blackbird calls, 3 Ring Ouzel, 1 Skylark, 4 Robin, 1 Meadow Pipit, 1 Turnstone and 3 Common Snipe. The Spoonbill total keeps creeping up and it looks like we may break another record for the fourth year in a row as 52 were out on Shipstal Point for most of the morning. The UK record is 60 Spoonbill, which came from the harbour in October last year, so all we need is another 9 to arrive and we’re there! There were also 3 Black-necked Grebe off Goathorn. At Lytchett Fields the Lesser Yellowlegs was still present, until the work began on Lytchett Fields when it then disappeared, also there 218 Dunlin, 5 Curlew Sandpiper and 1 Marsh Harrier. A Redstart turned up in Wareahm mid-morning. An Arctic Tern also entered the harbour mouth at dawn. 

Below are cuts of the 3 Ring Ouzel we had over our listening station last night, each producing a very similar call type. The 3 we had on the night of October 2nd/3rd actually produced a different series of calls, of which you can listen to further down this page. 

Ring Ouzel 05/ 10/ 16 @ 01:31 Call of a night time migrant, Old Town Poole Listening Station

Ring Ouzel 05/10/16 @ 03:08 Call of a night time migrant, Old Town Poole Listening Station

Ring Ouzel 05/10/16 @ 00:55 Call of a night time migrant, Old Town Poole Listening Station

 

Common Redstart – Wareham – Trevor Warrwick

 

Harbour Update – posted 04/10/16

Posted on: October 5th, 2016 by Birds of Poole Harbour

The strong NE wind looked promising for some visible migration to get going, but as patiently as we waited up on Ballard Down it never got going. The best we could muster was c100 Redwing over the harbour mouth with a small handful of alba wagtails, Goldfinch and Linnet. Luckily the Yellow-browed Warblers were still going strong with 2 still at the PC World drain, another ringed close by in Poole Harbour north and one in an Oakdale garden. The Spoonbill total is increasing with 48 present now, with 45 at Arne and 3 on Brownsea. On Lytchett Fields the Lesser Yellowlegs was there again with 5 Curlew Sandpiper, c150 Dunlin and 4 Ringed Plover, as well as the usual good numbers of Redshank, Snipe, Lapwing, Teal etc. On Brownsea there was a Little Stint, 1 Sanderling, 15 Curlew, 3 Knot, 2 Bar-tailed Godwit, 30 Avocet, 2 Spotted Redshank and 1 Wheatear.

IMPORTANT LYTCHETT FIELDS INFO

Thanks to a grant from the Dorset Bird Club and additional support from the Birds of Poole Harbour and the RSPB, site works will begin at Lytchett Fields on Wednesday to create islands to provide high tide roosts. The works will also include some improvements to habitat and viewing facilities on Sherford Pools.

This will cause some unavoidable disturbance during Wednesday to Friday least. Visitors may wish to bear this in mind. 

 

Yellow-browed Warbler – Poole Harbour north – Paul Morton

 

 

Ketch heading out across Shell Bay at dawn – Paul Morton

 

Black (and spot the Bar)-tailed Godwit – Middlebere – Simon kidner

Harbour Update – posted 03/10/16

Posted on: October 4th, 2016 by Birds of Poole Harbour

It’s no wonder autumn is a birders favourite time of year, the variety of birds is just stunning and the unexpectedness is worth every minute you get out of bed early for. This morning, with most of the country dripping in Yellow-browed Warblers there was surely one hiding in the harbour somewhere, in fact as in panned out there were three…all in the PC World drain behind KFC at Holes Bay. Night recording from our listening station in Old Town Poole came up trumps too with 3 Ring Ouzel, 224 Song Thrush calls, 96 Redwing calls, 1 Goldcrest, 1 Tree Pipit, 2 Meadow Pipit, 1 small flock of Common Snipe and 1 Coot. At Arne there were also Redwing passing over, with 40 Spoonbill in Arne Bay, the Great White Egret at Shipstal, 5 Firecrest in the car park and a Hobby from the Raptor hide. There was late news of a ringtail Hen Harrier on Hartland from Sunday. At Lytchett Fields the Lesser Yellowlegs was still on Lytchett Fields with 1 Grey Plover, 1 Knot, 3 Curlew Sandpiper, c100 Redshank, c50 Snipe and a Marsh Harrier.

IMPORTANT LYTCHETT FIELDS INFO

Thanks to a grant from the Dorset Bird Club and additional support from the Birds of Poole Harbour and the RSPB, site works will begin at Lytchett Fields on Wednesday to create islands to provide high tide roosts. The works will also include some improvements to habitat and viewing facilities on Sherford Pools.

Harbour Update – posted 02/10/16

Posted on: October 3rd, 2016 by Birds of Poole Harbour

A vis-mig session up on Ballard seemed like it could be productive but as dawn approached a few Goldfinch, Linnet and Siskin flocks moved through followed by a handful of Crossbill and that was about it. The biggest movers were Meadow Pipit and alba Wagtails with the prior moving all day on a broad front across the whole harbour. Up on Ballard there was a single Redstart and an obvious moderate arrival of Chiffchaff and Goldcrest. Sadly, it was announced that a Great Skua was found exhausted on Shipstal Beach and had to be taken into care, which would have almost certainly bee the bird that was on the Brownsea Lagoon yesterday. On the rising tide today on Lytchett Fields the Lesser Yellowlegs was still present with 136 Dunlin, 200+ Redshank, 8 Greenshank, 2 Curlew Sandpiper, 40+ Snipe and a Marsh Harrier. Up on Hartland there were 3 Merlin and 4 Marsh Harrier were in the west Poole Harbour roost. The Brownsea Spoonbill total was 40 with 3 Curlew Sandpiper, 8 Spotted Redshank and a whole suit of other commoners waders. An early evening Osprey drifting low over Lilliput was a nice end of day surprise. 

Harbour Update – posted 01/10/16

Posted on: October 2nd, 2016 by Birds of Poole Harbour

The Brownsea Lagoon was again given another good grilling today and the reward came in the shape of a juvenile Great Skua which came and pitched down next to a dead gull for around an hour before moving off again. Other totals from the lagoon included 43 Spoonbill, 5 Curlew Sandpiper, 2 Ruff, 8 Knot, 25 Greenshank, 15 Spotted Redshank, 174 Redshank, 9 Sanderling, 4 Turnstone, 456 Dunlin, 58 Bar-tailed godwit, 191 Avocet, 33 Ringed Plover, 6 Grey Plover, 2 Snipe, 600+ Oystercatcher, 3 Common and 4 Sandwich Tern, 2 Kingfisher and 3 Water Rail. Up on Hartland 2 Merlin were seen interacting, a male and a female. At Lytchett Fields the Lesser Yellowlegs remained and a juvenile Marsh Harrier passed through and there were also 2 Knot on the fields. At Swineham there were Yellow Wagtail at the end of the lane, a Hobby dashed through and at Swineham Point 2 Skylark, 2 Snipe and a Kingfisher, along with a Wheatear at Bestwall and 6 Sand Martin feeding over the main pit. 

Harbour Update – posted 30/09/16

Posted on: October 2nd, 2016 by Birds of Poole Harbour

Today a school bird boat took place and a Great White Egret was seen feeding on the shoreline of Long Island and another (or the same) was later seen feeding on Lytchett Fields briefly before heading off to Rockley Park direction. The Lesser Yellowlegs was still on Lytchett Fields where the high tide count also produced 1 Knot, 1 Ringed Plover, c50 Snipe, 3 Curlew Sandpiper, 1 Little Stint and a good count of Redshank, Dunlin, Greenshank, Teal and Wigeon. Some passerine passage was also evident with 1 Woodlark, 1 Skylark, 1 Firecrest, 1 Treecreeper, 3 Goldcrest, 7 Chiffchaff and 30 Meadow Pipit over around Lytchett Fields too with Marsh Harrier, Sparrowhawk and Kestrel all passing through. Around the Hartland Moor, Soldiers Road area there were 11 Wheatear, 1 Whinchat, 2 Blackcap and a Woodlark.

Harbour Update – posted 29/09/16

Posted on: October 1st, 2016 by Birds of Poole Harbour

As September comes to an end, the prime time for Wrynecks is almost over. However there was just enough time for one to turn up in a Parkstone garden.. I bet the lucky finder wasn’t quite expecting that! The Lesser Yellowlegs was still on Lytchett Fields with 1 Curlew Sandpiper, 3 Knot, 1 Little Stint, 150 Dunlin, 6 Greenshank, 1 Common Sandpiper, 1 Hobby, 1 Marsh Harrier, 3 Sandwich Tern and 3 Reed Warbler. On the Brownsea Lagoon Spoonbill numbers remain at 37, also there 2 Curlew Sandpiper and 3 Spotted Redshank. A Firecrest was in Slough Lane, Upton with another 3 in the Arne car park. 

Harbour Update – posted 28/09/16

Posted on: September 29th, 2016 by Birds of Poole Harbour

There was anice selection of rarities and scarcities today starting with the Lesser Yellowlegs which was on Lytchett Fields. Then at Arne, the weekly Wednesday walk came up trumps when a Wryneck flew over the group and landed in a pine tree near by and a Yellow-browed Warbler was seen in some scrub whilst the group were watching 2 Osprey in the Middlebere Channel. On Brownsea the 37 Spoonbill remained on the webcam for almost all of the day and at Lytchett Fields there was still 1 Ruff, 1 Curlew Sandpiper and c100 Dunlin. There was also a decent pulse of hirundines pulsing through all day, mostly Swallow, but a Swift also passed over Stoborough Heath mid-morning. 

Lesser Yellowlegs – Lytchett Fields – Ian Ballam

 

 

Lesser Yellowlegs – Lytchett Fields – Ian Ballam

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