Both Wednesday 3^rd and Thursday 4^th were very quite with not much to report other than a Woodlark singing on Slepe Heath, 20+ Spoonbill on Shipstal, 1 Short-eared Owl on Coombe Heath, Arne, 2 Firecrest in the Arne car park, 1500+ Brent Geese in Middelbere with a Marsh Harrier, 1 Merlin at Shipstal the Smew in Holes Bay.

Tufted Duck – Poole Park – Keith Rawling

Goldeneye – Poole Park – Keith Rawling

Pintail – Upton CP – Keith Rawling

RSPB Lytchett Fields and Lytchett Bay saw most coverage today with 2 Bearded Tit in a reedbed just behind the Waterworks, 1 Spoonbill, 4 Greenshank, 1 Spotted Redshank, 8 Red-breasted Merganser and 1 Goldeneye out in the Bay and 332 Lapwing, 15 Little Egret and a Kingfisher out on the fields. On the Pools Field at Lytchett Bay there was 1 Water Pipit, but several of the ‘Scandinavian’ Rock Pipit are starting to moult into their spring plumage, which will be nice to see if they hang around until their moult is complete. In Poole Harbour west a Peregrine spooked a flock of 500 Lapwing and a Hen Harrier worked its way across the Wareham Channel north shore. A Marsh Harrier was seen at Upton Country Park.

A quiet Monday with just the Holes Bay Smew, 20+ Shipstal Spoonbill and a ringtail Hen Harrier in Middlebere being the only birds reported. 

Sightings were few and far between today with not much change from recent days. There were 20+ Spoonbill out at Shipstal and 3 Great Northern Diver on the open water. The Smew was still in Holes Bay south and both Marsh and Hen Harrier were noted in Poole Harbour west.

Public Talk

Birds of Poole Harbour will be hosting a talk at Holton Lee on Feb 17^th about the charities work and the birds and wildlife of Holton Lee/ Lytchett Bay. The event is a booked event so to book on please call Holton Lee on 01202 625562.

Today we were invited by NT, DWT and RSPB to host the commentary on the Poole Harbour public bird boat, an invitation we can never refuse! This new public bird boat partnership between NT, DWT and RSPB only began this winter and saw them trying a new ‘double boat’ option, meaning that two tours were carried out back to back throughout the day. As a trial trip it was a great experience and with a few logistical tweaks could be a great success in winters to come. Seeing good birds always helps and although the cold wind blew the birds certainly performed. Most notably a female Merlin which spent most of the day hunting and spooking waders on the Brownsea Lagoon with a Peregrine occasionally chipping in too. A 2015/16 winter record count of 112 Bar-tailed Godwit was also noted with 7 Greenshank, 6 Spotted Redshank, 2 Spoonbill, 12 Turnstone, 1 Yellow-legged Gull, 1 Med Gull and 8 Pintail all of note on the lagoon with Avocet, Black-tailed Godwit, Redshank, Dunlin, Grey Plover and Knot all adding to the spectacle. In total a 68 species were recorded from the boat and harbour tour. Out on the water the Black Guillemot showed well for one group but then totally disappeared for the other, but up to 6 Great Northern Diver, 2 Black-necked Grebe, Goldeneye, Red-breasted Merganser and Great Crested Grebes made for an enjoyable trip with 15 Spoonbill on Shipstal too. At Lytchett Fields the ringtail Hen Harrier again passed over the fields and reeds on the western edge of the bay. Despite much searching from the Bird Boat we saw no Golden Pheasant on Furzey Island, however 5 were ‘scoped’ from South Haven on the slipway of Furzy, including 2 males. This is the highest count of this species in the harbour for quite some time. Out in Studland Bay were 1 Great Northern Diver, 1 Slavonian Grebe and 3 Black-necked Grebe. The Smew was still feeding out in Holes Bay south near the railway bridge.

A morning watch from the Holton Lee shoreline out across the Wareham Channel saw of note…3 Sandwich Tern, 4 Spoonbill, 2 Goldeneye, 3 Grey Plover and 2 Pintail as well as the usual assemblage of common waders and wildfowl. At RSPB Lytchett Fields a ringtail Hen Harrier was seen over the fields and on Sherford Pools a Green Sandpiper was seen. 

A school bird boat was out this morning and the Black Guillemot once again showed well off the Brownsea SE corner. Also out on the water were 3 Great Northern Diver, c15 Goldeneye and 15 Spoonbill on Shipstal Spit. The Brownsea Lagoon was fairly flooded but still held reasonable numbers of Grey Plover, Dunlin, Black and Bar-tailed Godwit, several Greenshank, 4 Spotted Redshank and a few Knot. There were 4 different ringtail Hen Harrier in the west of the harbour including an individual that was first noted back in late October last year but not seen since. Marsh Harrier showed only slightly better totals with 5 present, but encouragingly two were seen talon locking a couple of days ago. Just playing? Its also getting close to spring migration time and you may remember last year we held a number of night migration sound recording sessions from the Frome Valley area (and my garden), well this year we have a new monitoring site in the Old Town Poole area. So far this year we’ve conducted three night recording sessions, specifically set up to monitor what’s moving around/through the harbour whilst we’re all in slumber land. On Wednesday night we had 2 Redwing, 1 Song Thrush, 1 Teal, 1 Ringed Plover, 1 Dunlin, 1 Grey Heron and 2 Wigeon over our listening station between 8pm and 4am.

Black Guillemot – Brownsea SE – Paul Morton 

Black Guillemot – Brownsea SE – Paul Morton

Dunlin Flock – Poole Quay – Paul Morton

The storm had well and truly set in over-night and didn’t let up until late afternoon. During the peak of the grotty weather a Sandwich Tern was hunkering down on the playing fields with 2 Ringed Plover, 4 Turnstone, 2 Redshank and 3 ‘Scandinavian’ Rock Pipit. At Holton lee 4 Spoonbill flew over towards the Wareham Channel and at Poole Park 2 Goldeneye were riding the waves on the main lake. 

As the wind and rain swept in Baiter became the normal manky weather refuge for a range of birds. Out on the playing fields were 4 Ringed Plover, 8 Turnstone, 100+ Black-tailed Godwit, 50+ Dunlin and 50+ Oystercatcher. There was an incredible gathering of gulls out on the Brownsea Lagoon at dusk, all sheltering from the storm. There was somewhere in the region of 2000-3000 birds in total, all mostly Herring and Great Black-backed Gulls with a few Lesser Black-backed in there too. In the Arne car park 3 Firecrest were present and off Shipstal, Arne was 1 Slavonian Grebe and 20 Spoonbill.

Gull roost at dusk during storm – Brownsea Lagoon

Gull roost at dusk during storm – Brownsea Lagoon (different view)

There was little to report today other than the 2 Firecrest were behind PC World again with several Chiffchaff. In Poole Park the Goldeneye group were showing off again at close range and a few Red-breasted Merganser joined them. Off Shipstal 20 Spoonbill were roosting and in Middlebere a male Hen Harrier, 1 Spotted Redshank and 1 adult Yellow-legged Gull were noted. 

Goldeneye – male on Poole Park Lake – Ian Ballam

Goldeneye – female on Poole Park Lake – Ian Ballam

Red-breasted Merganser – Poole Park Lake – Ian Ballam