At Middlebere there was 1 Spoonbill, 2 Spotted Redshank, and 3 Greenshank. At Lytchett Fields there were still 8 Curlew Sandpiper, 2 Little Stint, 1 Wood Sandpiper, 2 Spotted Redshank and 1 Ruff.

Ruff – Lytchett Fields – Ian Ballam

Record numbers of Black-tailed Godwit were on Lytchett Fields today with a count of 1031 at midday. It was also packed with other species such as 15 Green Sandpiper, 5 Greenshank, 20+ Snipe, 170+ Redshank, 1 Wood Sandpiper, 2 Ruff, 5 Ringed Plover, 1 Little Ringed Plover, 9 Curlew Sandpiper, 60+ Lapwing, 60+ Dunlin, 1 Little Stint, 1 Spotted Redshank, 4 Common Sandpiper, 1 Knot and 200 Teal! An Osprey passed over Arne. 

Despite yesterdays good run of birds, coverage was at a minimum today with just an Osprey off Swineham Point and one each of Lesser Whitethroat, Redstart and Spotted Flycatcher around the Swineahm pits reported. An Osprey passed over Lytchett Fields briefly and disturbed 6 Curlew Sandpiper, 2 Little Stint, 2 Ruff and 1 Little Ringed Plover.

Osprey – Lytchett Fields – Ian Ballam

Amazingly, despite the wader fest at Lytchett Fields it was actually a Wryneck that took centre stage today which darted out of a gorge bush, sat on the viewpoint sign for several seconds and then disappeared! Wader-wise an incredible 6 Curlew Sandpiper, 3 Little Stint, 1 Wood Sandpiper, 2 Ruff, 2 Little Ringed Plover, 10+ Ringed Plover, 90+ Dunlin, 800+ Black-tailed Godwit, 200+ Redshank, 15+ Green Sandpiper, 8 Greenshank and 150+ Teal were counted. On Brownsea there were 6 Spoonbill, 1 Little Stint, 2 Ruff, 2 Spotted Redshank, 6 Greenshank, 1 Knot and 4 Curlew Sandpiper. 

With the wader potential creeping up a notch in the harbour more and more people seem to be visiting Lytchett Fields, with 1 Spoonbill, 2 Ruff, 2 Little Stint, 1 Wood Sandpiper, 2 Little Ringed Plover, 500+ Black-tailed Godwit, 150+ Redshank, 11 Greenshank, 4 Common Sandpiper, 16 Green Sandpiper, 25 Snipe, 10 Ringed Plover and 40+ Dunlin present there today. Just outside the area were 2 Osprey at Morden Bog which will almost certainly be commuting to the harbour and back to feed. 

We apologise for the lack of sightings over the last week, just as it seems as the harbour has gone wader crazy! We returned from Birdfair on Monday morning and have been playing catch up ever since. We will update a full list of sightings as of today and we hope that over the last week you’ve been able to catch up with the wealth of bird life the harbour had had to offer! Starting at of course Lytchett Fields where waders were still the order of the day with 2 Little Stint, 1 Ruff, c40 Dunlin, 2 Common Sandpiper, 5 Greenshank, and Redshank, Lapwing and Black-tailed Godwit. Also there a Spotted Flycatcher, 1 Peregrine and a Yellow-legged Gull. Spoonbills were spread between Brownsea and Middlebere with 5 on the lagoon and 3 in the Middlebere Channel.  

We apologise for the lack of sightings over the last week, but we were away at the Birdfair from mid-last week and are catching up on sightings now. We aim to have all up to date days and sightings up on the website by Wednesday evening.

In the mean time, if you have any sightings from within the Poole Harbour area please send them to us at info@birdsofpooleharbour.co.uk

Lytchett Fields was a real wader fest today with 12 species recorded. Highlights from the site included 2 Little Stint, 1 Ruff, 1 Little Ringed Plover, 5 Ringed Plover, 8 Snipe and several Common Sandpiper as well as Redshank, Dunlin, Black-tailed Godwit, Lapwing, Greenshank and Green Sandpiper. There was also a site rarity as a Yellowhammer pitched down in one of the hedgerows and 2 Yellow Wagtail were out on the fields. A ringing session from Lytchett Bay saw only a small passage of Sedge Warbler and Reed Warbler with Whitethroat and several Willow Warbler also ringed. In scrub at the north end of Holes Bay Garden Warbler, Lesser Whitethroat, Sedge Warbler, Willow Warbler, Blackcap and Chiffchaff were all noted. On Brownsea up to 9 Spoonbill are back now with numbers likely to increase all the way through September and in to October. Poole Harbour hit a national record of 60 Spoonbill on October 17^th 2015…will we exceed that total this year? Also on Brownsea today were 41 Avocet, 20 Ringed Plover, 5 Greenshank, 1 Turnstone, 1 Common Sandpiper and 21 Curlew. At Arne an Osprey was seen several times between the Wareham Channel and Middlebere also a Marsh Harrier there. Our efforts of night migration sound recording are going from bad to worse again with just 2 Tree Pipit recorded. There were several very distant wader calls but none that were really identifiable other than some passing Oystercatcher.

Common Sandpiper – Lytchett Fields – Ian Ballam

This is nice now, seeing Osprey appear on our sightings page on a daily basis now with one seeing multiple times during the day as it first entered the harbour early morning and was later seen again around the Arne peninsular at 11am and then again at 3pm. Later on in august and by the beginning of September its not unusual to have sightings of two sometimes three together so here’s hoping more arrive over the next couple of weeks. At Lytchett Fields 2 Little Stint arrived and were settled on the fields with 1 Ruff, 500+ Black-tailed Godwit, 4 Common Sandpiper, 6 Green Sandpiper, 10 Snipe, 2 Yellow Wagtail and 2 Stonechat. At South Haven, Studland there was 1 Spotted Flycatcher, 1 Tree Pipit and 2 Garden Warbler. Last nights sound recording session was again fairly quiet but Tree Pipit are now a regular feature (or have been for the last three nights anyway). Also recorded was 1 Green Sandpiper, 1 Redshank, 1 Dunlin, 1 Ringed Plover and a single passerine call. 

 Green Sandpiper – Calls of a night time migrant – Old Town Poole 01:42

Tree Pipit – Calls of a night time migrant – Old Town Poole Listening Station 02:17

There was another early Merlin that dashed across Arne moors early morning and the third new Marsh Harrier of the week arrived in the Wareham Channel. At Lytchett Fields the juv Ruff was still present with 5 Greenshank, 7 Green Sandpiper, 2 Common Sandpiper, 10 Snipe, 20+ Dunlin, 5 Ringed Plover whilst migrants around the fields included a Spotted Flycatcher, 5 Sedge Warbler and 3 Willow Warbler. Night recording from our listening station in Old Town Poole picked up slightly with the first recording of Tree Pipit of the autumn around 1am and two passerine calls, likely to be either Pied or Spotted Flycatcher. Also recorded between 21:30 and 04:30 were a small flock of Common Tern just after midnight, 1 Redshank, 1 Common Sandpiper and 3 Oystercatcher.