Finally there was a bit of quality today when an Arctic Skua was photographed off Shipstal Point, Arne around 7:30pm which by all accounts had spent the afternoon harassing gulls on Long Island. Skua’s in the harbour are a rare event indeed and for one to settle long enough to provide a photo opportunity, even rarer. To give this some context, it’s interesting to point out that over the last 5 years there have been more Black-winged Stilts within Poole Harbour than Arctic Skua! Also off Shipstal was a male Common Scoter. A Cuckoo, 2 Hobby 2 Red Kite and 12 Buzzard were along high over the Moors and along the Arne Road, 2 Tree Pipit were on Slepe heath and there were 2 Redstart at Arne. A likely migrant Marsh Harrier drifted over the Wareham Channel briefly before carrying on west. Around the Sunnyside, Stoborough Heath area 6 Willow Warbler were on territory as were 7 Chiffchaff, 1 Whitethroat, 2 Blackcap, 2 Dartford Warbler and a Kestrel. Lytchett Fields was sparse of variety but total of regular birds were still good with 165 Black-tailed Godwit, 117 Shelduck, 5 Gadwall and 14 Pied Wagtail. At Lytchett Heath, there were Bearded Tit on territory within the reedbed and a Hobby passed over there. 

Arctic Skua – Shipstal Point, Arne – Brian Piercy

You’ll have to excuse the ‘lumped’ dates, but info coming through to us has been so limited that news for each day would have barely made it over ‘the one sentence’ threshold. Most info now refers to breeding birds, and birds on territory with very few migrants coming through now. Through Thursday and Friday a few Swallows and Swifts were pushing through still and at the PCW Drain there was a late migrant Reed Warbler passing through. At Holton Lee a Continental type Stonechat is on territory and currently feeding young. At Sunnyside, near Ridge a Cuckoo and Hobby were seen feeding in front of the NE screen. A scan from the Coombe viewpoint should return views of Hobby as they feed out above Middlebere, Slepe and Salterns Copse. At Lytchett Fields a few over summering Black-tailed Godwit continue to feed on the high tide out from Sherford and French’s viewpoints. The heathlands are now home to plenty of Nightjar and a late evening stroll along Soldiers Road, Hartland Moor, Studland Heath, Holton Lee, Canford or Upton Heath on a warm still evening should provide you with churring males and if you’re lucky a sight of one breaking the skyline. 

On Saturday our monthly field trip for May saw us expanded our range slightly, to just outside the harbour boundaries with a visit to Morden Bog. Despite the constant rain, drizzle, murk, more drizzle, bit more rain and a wet welly or two we didn’t actually do too badly with a Woodlark, 1 Hobby, 2 singing (but not seen) Redstarts, 1 Spotted Flycatcher, 3-4 Tree Pipit, several Stonechat and a Cuckoo.

Continental type Stonechat – Holton Lee – Paul Morton

Juvenile Starlings – Upton – Paul Morton

Swallow – Ridge – Paul Morton

Our Med Gull story has gathered quite a bit of traction over the last couple of days getting some good press coverage and it appears it may even feature in the Sunday Times this weekend…great stuff!

With a bit more unsettled weather on the way, hopefully they’ll be the opportunity to provide one last drop of migrants before the early-mid summer doldrums kick in. Waders are still on the move, but the easterlies we were lucky to experience over the last two weeks certainly seemed to increase passage through the harbour. At Lytchett Fields highlights were 148 Black-tailed Godwit, 7 Dunlin, 1 Cuckoo, 4 Great Crested Grebe and a new Whitethroat in. At the PCW Drain, 4 Blackcap were active and a single Whitethroat was there. Over Old Town Poole, a max count of 12 Swift seemed fairly low, hopefully numbers will rise in the next few days. Around the Arne Peninsular Hobby’s were recorded above the Moors, near Middlebere and along the Arne Road.

We’re also thrilled to announce and present the winning entry for our logo design competition set last year. You can read about (and obviously already see) the new winning design by CLICKING HERE, but we’d again just like to say congratulations to Oni Wyatt, the winning designer and to everyone else that submitted entries, it was great fun to host and judge. We hope you like the winning design!

Toady we sent out a press release which highlighted the illegal egging our survey team discovered on ‘Gull Islands’ within the harbour back in early May. The survey uncovered a mass harvest of Gull eggs including the collection of Mediterranean Gull eggs, a schedule one species that is protected by law. You can read the full story by CLICKING HERE. The survey reported a massive 70% combined decline of Black-headed Gull and Mediterranean Gull nests from an initial survey in 2008 and a 60% combined decline from a repeat survey in 2015. If anyone has any information or sees people out on ‘Gull Islands’, which are situated out in the Wareham Channel then please contact us right away.

Sightings-wise it was very quiet with 3 Ringed Plover, 4 Dunlin, 3 Lapwing and 1 Greenshank at Lytchett Fields. A single Great Northern Diver was off Baiter, out towards Brownsea. From Coombe heath, Arne 3 Hobby were feeding over the reedbed to the west and a Woodlark flew over the viewpoint. 

Highlights from a very quiet day was a drake Garganey that was found on the main pit at Swineham GP around midday. Other than this, there were 10 Hobby feeding along the Slepe Heath ridge and over Arne Moors with a Red Kite drifting to the south over near Norden/Corfe area. At Lytchett Fields there were 3 Ringed Plover and 4 Dunlin. Finally there was an interesting report of a Swift species with a white rump reported over Poole Town Centre around 11:30am, getting pulses racing for a short while, but after several vigils were taken up from prominent viewing spots, nothing could be located.

With the wind swinging round to the north, and putting a slightly uncomfortable chill in the air today bird news was fairly limited. A dedicated count at Swineham carried out by local birder and photographer Peter Moore returned some good counts with 20 Cetti’s Warbler, 53 Reed Warbler, 3 Sedge Warbler (rare breeders in the harbour), 5 Blackcap, 3 Chiffchaff and 2 Skylark, 2 Cuckoo, 1 Marsh Harrier and a Little Ringed Plover on a pool along the River Frome walk. Lytchett Fields today could only muster 5 Ringed Plover and 3 Dunlin along with 1 Greenshank and 80+ Black-tailed Godwit. 

After being flushed by a Buzzard yesterday the Black-winged Stilt returned to Lytchett Fields in the evening after a 31-hour absence from the site. Where it went during this time period is anyone’s guess, but it’s a shame to think it may have been gracing another site with its presence within the harbour totally unnoticed. Throughout the day at Lytchett Fields 80+ Black-tailed Godwit, 5 Dunlin, 2 Greenshank, 1 Hobby, 12 Whimbrel and a pair of mating Redshank were logged. At Swineham a Cuckoo was calling in the paddocks by North Bestwall House, a single Common Sandpiper was on the newly exposed area of mud bank on at the far end of the main pit whilst out on the mud 2 Ringed Plover were present with 3 Dunlin. The ‘Hobby Fest’ continued in the south of the harbour with no less than 7 hunting closely together over the Slepe Heath/Arne moors area, best viewed from the top of the Slepe Heath Ridge. Also out in the Wareham channel there were 3 Marsh Harrier and evidence suggesting that the Marsh Harrier nest is now active with chicks which is excellent news. 

An early cold spell gave way to a glorious and sweltering afternoon which saw the Black-winged Stilt and Glossy Ibis put in appearances at Lytchett Fields again, although the Glossy Ibis was seen to head off high at around 9am and wasn’t seen again whilst the Black-winged Stilt was flushed by a Buzzard around midday. Also at Lytchett Fields a single Hobby, plenty of House Martin and Swallow in during the mid-morning deluge, 5 Greenshank and 3 Whimbrel. At Arne a Hobby, Cuckoo, strong passage of Swallows, 4 Whimbrel, 2 Grey Plover, 8 Swift and a Marsh Harrier were logged. 

Whimbrel – Lytchett Fileds – Ian Ballam

After the late night discovery of the Black-winged Stilt last night at Lytchett Fields it was with welcome news that it was re-found this morning, along with the reappearance of the Glossy Ibis which spent the day mooching around all the wet fields on site. With both these southern European birds present on site at the same time it felt rather like the Costa Del Lytchett at times! Lets hope they stick around for a while. There was also a Ruff and Common Sandpiper at Lytchett Fields. From Slepe Heath, looking out across Arne Moors and the Wareham Channel there was a minimum of 9 Hobby hunting at 13:15. Middlebere saw 1 Whimbrel, 1 Greenshank, c80 Dunlin and 1 Hobby.

A night recording session from our Listening Station in Old Town Poole from Tuesday night saw another big pulse of Ringed Plover and Dunlin moving right the way through the night. It was surprisingly also our busiest night for Whimbrel so far this spring with no less than 7 birds encountered along with Redshank, 2-3 Tree Pipit, 9 individual Common Sandpiper and what sounded like a decent sized flock too just before dawn, although its most likely there were actually only a 2-3 passing over. Have a listen below and see what you think.

Common Sandpiper Flock – Calls of night time migrants – Old Town Poole Listening Station

Glossy Ibis – Lytchett Fields – Martin Wood

Black-winged Stilt – Lytchett Fields – Ian Ballam

What a day! Just as we were getting site envy that everywhere else in the country was getting good birds, two come along at once. Diehard patch birder Ian Ballam was doing his usual rounds at Lytchett Fields/Bay when he managed to find the sites first and Poole Harbours 4^thGlossy Ibis in the last 6 years. To add to this excellent record, a late dark and foggy evening visit to Lytchett Fields by other patch watcher Dave Jones came up trumps when he found Lytchett Fields 4^th and Poole Harbours 9^thBlack-winged Stilt. To have these two southern European species at this site at once is quite a unique event, and perhaps a sign of things to come over the next 10-20 years? Also present at Lytchett Fields were 11 Dunlin, 3 Whimbrel, 1 Curlew, 31 Ringed Plover, 2 Greenshank, 1 drake Shoveler, 1 Peregrine and the coot for its third day. At Arne, wader passage was also obvious in the mouth of the Middlebere Channel as 4 Grey Plover, 4 Turnstone, 1 Common Sandpiper, 36 Dunlin, 7 Ringed Plover and 5 Whimbrel formed a loose flock as 2 Yellow Wagtail passed over and a Cuckoo was feeding along a Coombe Heath fence line. 

Glossy Ibis – Lytchett Fields – Ian Ballam

Black-winged Stilt (honestly) – Lytchett Fields – Paul Morton