The good vibes from yesterday continued in to today when the Aquatic Warbler was found again at Lytchett Fields, this time viewable from one of the viewpoints giving people the opportunity to visit throughout the day, although the bird only showed intermittently but still, this is the first ‘watchable’ Aquatic Warbler in Poole Harbour for decades! There was a good mix of waders for people to enjoy too whilst waiting for the Aquatic to rear its head with 1 Wood Sandpiper, 1 Little Stint, 2 Ruff, 10+ Green Sandpiper, 1 Knot and the usual common waders. The Middlebere Osprey show really got going about 10:20am when 4 were soaring on a thermal together for a short while before all splitting off and heading to different directions. One of the Osprey now seems quite faithful to the nesting platform and returns to it on and off throughout the day which is great news for visitors in Middlebere, the raptor hide at Arne and up on Coombe Heath. Up on Hartland there were c80 Yellow Wagtail in the cow fields with several Whitethroat about too. On the Brownsea Lagoon there was still at least 1 Curlew Sandpiper and 8 Spoonbill.

Curlew Sandpiper – Brownsea Lagoon – Mike Davidson

Osprey – Middlebere – Barbara Bisset

Today was one of those really special autumn days that seem to come around only once or twice a year. It started of when local patch birder Ian Ballam found an ‘in the field’ Aquatic Warbler at Lytchett Fields. The bird its self is rare enough, but with almost all observations of this species in the UK consisting of mist netted individuals, to get such high quality photos of one not in someone’s hand was a job well done. Unfortunately it flew and wasn’t seen for the rest of the day. The status of Aquatic Warbler in a global context is that it is now classed as critically endangered mainly due to loss of suitable breeding habitat in eastern Europe, and as a result it has become equally rare as an autumn migrant in the UK. CLICK HERE to view the status of Aquatic Warbler in a Poole Harbour context.

Aquatic Warbler – Lytchett Fields – Ian Ballam

Aquatic Warbler – Lytchett Fields – Ian Ballam

Aquatic Warbler – Lytchett Fields – Ian Ballam

There was another special and historic moment today when one of the juvenile Middlebere Osprey’s landed on the converted nesting platform for the first time ever, where it quite happily fed on a fish for several hours. This is significant as it means the birds are possibly identifying and recognising the platform as a nest and see it as a safe place to eat. This in turn could mean they remember this on their return journey north in a few years and may wish to stay and breed? There are obviously many if’s and but’s but it’s a very positive response to the man made structure.

Osprey – Middlebere nesting platform – Jason Fathers

Osprey – Middlebere nesting platform – Barbara Bisset

Whilst the 2 Middlebere Osprey chilled out and ate fish it seemed a third was causing havoc over in the Holes Bay/Upton CP area, upsetting the 250+ roosting Black-tailed Godwits and 1 Common Sandpiper. At Lytchett Fields a supporting cast of 1 Wood Sandpiper, 1 Little Stint, 4 Ruff, 43 Dunlin, 40+ Redshank, 300+ Black-tailed Godwit, 1 Greenshank, 1 Knot, 3 Ringed Plover, 15+ Green Sandpiper, 1 adult Yellow-legged Gull and a Peregrine Falcon. Up on Ballard Down a night sound recording session was held from 1am – 5:30am in the hope of trying to piece together this Ortolan Bunting phenomenon, which unfortunately didn’t come to fruition as the only birds sound recorded going over in the dark were 2 Tree Pipit, 2 Robins and 1 Ringed Plover. However, birding around Ballard at dawn was more productive with 9 Tree Pipit, 3 Wheatear, 1 Redstart, 2 Spotted Flycatcher, 4 Whitethroat, 10 Yellow Wagtail and 10+ Chiffchaff. However, there was more news from Nick Hopper who was night sound recording from Stoborough, near Arne and he had another 2 Ortolan Bunting over the course of the night! We’re definitely just at the tip of the iceberg with this bizarre discovery at the moment but as we mentioned a few days ago, we aim to try and link all this data up with field observations too and more night monitoring. 

The Osprey interest is building with 2 individuals using the dead trees at Middlebere for most of the day, one even looked as if it was going to use the nesting platform but decided to ditch it at the last minute. On the Brownsea Lagoon there were 11 Spoonbill, 4 Curlew Sandpiper, 4 Spotted Redshank, 2 Ringed Plover, 5 Greenshank, 2 Knot and a Peregrine. At Lytchett Fields there were 2 Ruff, 2 Little Stint, 30 Dunlin, 2 Greenshank, 15+ Green Sandpiper, 1 Common Sandpiper, 31 Redshank, 50+ Black-tailed Godwit, 2 Yellow Wagtails and 20+ Chiffchaff around the site. Despite the urban setting, Poole Town Centre can be great for migrants, you just needed to know where to look.  In the scrub around Holes Bay north there was 1 Spotted Flycatcher, 6 Blackcap and 10+ Chiffchaff, on the bit of rough ground behind Kerry Foods there was a Redstart, 4 Blackcap, 10 Chiffchaff and a Whitethroat and out on the Twin Sails site 2 Wheatear and a Whitethroat.

A stiller, calmer day produced a selection of migrants from various locations. At Swineham 7 Yellow Wagtail were in with the cattle opposite the entrance to Swineham Farm, also 1 Spotted Flycatcher, 2 Whitethroat, 2 Sedge Warbler, 2 Willow Warbler and several Chiffchaff and Reed Warbler still about. At Holton Heath there were still 6+ Spotted Flycatcher about along with a post breeding flock of 11 Mistle Thrush feeding on Rowan Berries. At Middlebere there were 2 Osprey feeding together in the trees at Middlebere, one even looked as if it was going to perch up on the nesting platform opposite the Middlebere hide but at the last minute decided not to. On Lytchett Fields there was an arrival of Ruff with 5 by late evening along side 2 Little Stint still and a nice selection of Common and Green Sandpipers, Common Snipe, Redshank, Black-tailed Godwit and Lapwing. On the Brownsea Lagoon there were 2 Curlew Sandpiper, 10 Spoonbill, 30+ Avocet, 1 Spotted Redshank and 7 Greenshank.

We also placed on social media this evening that after analysing all our night recordings from August 22^nd to 26^th its likely we may have had a passing of Ortolan Bunting each night over the five nights, including 3 likely pass overs on the night of the 24^th.  If you combine this info with the news that Nick Hopper had 4 over Portland on the night of Aug 24^th then it seems something very interesting is going on with this species at night during the latter part of August. Our recordings between August 22^nd and 26^th consist of several different call types ranging from full sequences of flight calls to just singular calls although all are distinct and seem to be consistent with Ortolan Bunting. We’ll continue our night recording sessions throughout the autumn combined with field observation work too to see if we can experience and gain more evidence of this phenomenon.

Spotted Flycatcher – Swineham – Peter Moore

Common Whitethroat – Swineham – Peter Moore

Sedge Warbler – Swineham – Peter Moore

Reed Warbler – Swineham – Peter Moore

With the SW wind settled for a few days now, migrants are becoming harder to come by. At Lytchett Fields 2 Little Stint, 2 Ringed Plover, 4 Greenshank, 44 Dunlin, 1 Whimbrel and 1 Knot were the pick of the bunch on an early round. A corking adult male Redstart was on Holton Lee heath whilst in Holes Bay there were 204 Black-tailed Godwit, 165 Redshank, 1 Common Sandpiper, 2 Knot, 2 Snipe and 6 Ringed Plover along with 1 Little Grebe back for ‘the winter’ 21 Little Egret, 125 Teal, 2 Raven and a Spotted Flycatcher. Night recording has been very quiet since last weeks bonanza night with just a handful of Tree Pipit, Robin and the odd wader in recent nights, what we really need is another dark, dank and wet still night like last Thursday to bring the birds down to an audible level. The Osprey was feeding on a fish again in the dead trees at Middlebere.

Efforts to try and catch Aquatic Warbler this autumn have so far been in vein but today saw an incredible form of compensation when 18 Grasshopper Warbler were ringed during a session at Lytchett Bay in just a few hours, beating the previous highest ever total for the site by ten in a single morning. Also in and around Lytchett Bay/Fields were 2 Redstart, 1 Spotted Flycatcher, 1 Whinchat, only a handful of Yellow Wagtail, 3 juv Little Stint, 1 Curlew Sandpiper, 3 Common Sandpiper, 15+ Green Sandpiper, 3 Knot, 200 Black-tailed Godwit, 30+ Dunlin, 100+ Redshank and 7 Greenshank. Night recording from our listening station was much quieter last night with just 11 Tree Pipit, 1 Common Sandpiper, 1 Redshank, 2 Yellow Wagtail, 1 Little Ringed Plover and 8 passerine calls. The Brownsea Lagoon today was special and featured 2 juv Little Stint, 10 Curlew Sandpiper, 4 Knot, 1 Sanderling, 1 Grey Plover, 70 Dunlin, 16 Ringed Plover, 86 Redshank, 1 Spotted Redshank, 9 Greenshank, 10 Spoonbill and a Firecrest near the Villa. Osprey sightings came from Lytchett Fields, the Wareham Channel and Middlebere. 

Stonechat – Lytchett Fields

Blackcap – Holes Bay north

Osprey – Middlebere

Common Sandpiper – Lytchett Fields

With more night migration research going on we were amazed to find we had another Ortolan Bunting over our listening station in Old town Poole along with 1 Redshank, 1 Ringed Plover, 1 Common Sandpiper, 25-30 Tree Pipit and 22 passerine calls. We understand that the Portland Obs guys have also been encountering Ortolan Bunting over their site at night, which provides a fascinating insight into what’s going on above our heads at night along the south coast. Lytchett Fields seems to have quietened down a bit with only 1 Little Ringed Plover, 6 Curlew Sandpiper, 10+ Green Sandpiper, 2 Common Sandpiper, 1 Ruff, 2 Kingfisher, 4 fly-over Yellow Wagtail and 1 Tree Pipit the real birds of note, along with the standard Lapwing, Black-tailed Godwit, Redshank and Snipe. Along Soldiers Road there were 6 Spotted Flycatcher and a Redstart and an Osprey was in the dead trees at Middlebere for most of the day with 1 Grey Plover, 1 Whimbrel, 2 Avocet, 2 Spoonbill in the channel and another Redstart along the lane. At Holton Heath 10 Spotted Flycatcher were feeding on the woodland edge. 

 Ortolan Bunting – Calls of night time migrant – Old Town Poole Listening Station 25/08/16 @ 3:15am

A wet muggy night produced a reasonably big Tree Pipit movement with 931 individual calls logged between 21:00 and 04:30 from our night listening station in Old Town Poole. This may seem massive but based on the fact some birds were calling 15-20 times as they passed over then best estimates suggest around 50-75 individuals passed over during the night. Also recorded were 223 passerine calls, all likely to be mostly Robin with a few Pied and Spotted Flycatcher in amongst them, 4 Common Sandpiper, 1 Dunlin, 2 Green Sandpiper, 6 Yellow Wagtail, 2 Ringed Plover, 1 possible Curlew Sandpiper and amazingly what sounds like another Ortolan Bunting!  At Middlebere there was a single Osprey again with 6 Spoonbill and at Lytchett Fields there 1 Little Ringed Plover, 6 Curlew Sandpiper, 2 Ruff and a Wood Sandpiper were logged. On the Brownsea Lagoon a single Curlew Sandpiper was present with 4 Spoonbill. At the Twin Sails site there were singles of Redstart and Whinchat with 2 Wheatear also present and a handful of Yellow Wagtail and Tree Pipit overhead.

So far this year we’ve analysed hundreds of hours worth of night recordings from our listening station in Old Town Poole with some fascinating results such as Woodcock, Mandarin Duck, Cuckoo and little Ringed Plover all passing over but the cream of the crop went over last night when an Ortolan Bunting passed over close to the microphone at 2am, this being only the second (possibly third) Poole Harbour record. Apparently they’re a common night migrant down in southern Europe so are we just discovering that actually they’re a regular night migrant here in the UK too with news that one passed over Portland late at night on the same night too! Also recorded this night were 22 Tree Pipit, 4 Robin, 1 Redshank, 2 Oystercatcher, 1 Curlew, 1 Whimbrel and 1 flycatcher sp. On Lytchett Fields there were 8 Curlew Sandpiper, 1 Wood Sandpiper, 1 Little Stint, 2 Ruff, 2 Knot, 3 Yellow Wagtail, 3 Willow Warbler and several Willow Warbler overhead. On the Brownsea Lagoon there were 4 Curlew Sandpiper and 9 Spoonbill. An Osprey was in Middlebere. 

Ortolan Bunting – Calls of a night time migrant – Old Town Poole Listening Station 2am 24/08/16

Things seemed to have settled slightly but we’re hoping that the mixture of light SE winds and the forecast rain in the coming days it could all get going again. Ospreys today were seen over Lytchett Bay and 2 over Arne. At Lytchett Fields there were still 8 Curlew Sandpiper, 2 Little Stint, 1 Wood Sandpiper, 1 Little Ringed Plover, 2 Ruff, 10+ Green Sandpiper, 4 Common Sandpiper, 6 Greenshank, 20+ Snipe, 60+ Lapwing and 800+ Black-tailed Godwit. On the Brownsea Lagoon there were 9 Spoonbill and 4 Curlew Sandpiper.

Curlew Sandpiper – Lytchett Fields – Ian Ballam