The harbours first Osprey of the spring drifted over Middlebere around 4pm before dropping down into the harbour area somewhere. Will it stick around? Who knows but hopefully it’s the first of several. Out on Lytchett Fields there were 3 Greenshank and 1 Spotted Redshank with singles of Marsh Harrier, Water Pipit, Swallow and Sand Martin with another 2 Swallow dashing through Strete in Poole and 4 more over Hartland. There was reports of a fall of Chiffchaff around the Studland area mid afternoon, prior to the wind and rain kicking in. Night recording from our listening station from Old Town Poole produced 159 Redwing calls, 4 Song Thrush calls, 1 Fieldfare and a Chaffinch.

Today was a pretty quiet day with not much to report other than 2 Firecrest in Stoborough and a very quiet night recording session with just 32 Redwing calls, 1 Blackbird and 2 Curlew.

The Harbours first Swallow of the spring dashed through Poole over the office roofs as we were setting up our sound recording gear. With Chiffchaff now beginning to come through in small waves, they can now be heard from various hedgerows and woodlands. An interesting looking tristis type Chiffchaff was found at Lytchett Fields early morning giving small bouts of song as it was feeding. A Stonechat along Holes Bay suggested it was a new arrival too. It was nice to see Brownsea get a good grilling today too with 12 Meds, 4 Sandwich Tern, 2 Snipe, 10 Knot, 5 Greenshank, 3 Turnstone, 16 Grey Plover, 50 Black-tailed Godwit, 18 Bar-tailed Godwit, 14 Curlew, 60 Avocet, 15 Gadwall, 20 Shoveler, 7 Brent Geese and 238 Shelduck all on the lagoon. Away from the lagoon 3 separate singing Firecrest were found, along with 2 singing Chiffchaff and a fly over Brambling. From the western shoreline of Brownsea a tight flock of 58 Great Crested Grebe were out in central harbour with 2 Common Scoter and 20 Red-breasted Merganser. At Norden Sewage Works a Firecrest was back again next to the filter beds and in Middlebere 7 Spoonbill were roosting. From Knoll Beach, Studland a single Black-necked Grebe and 3 Common Scoter were counted.

Our night recording session was a little more productive Monday night going into Tuesday with the highlights consisting of…

Redwing calls – 284

Song Thrush calls – 5

Blackbird calls – 10

Skylark – 1

Teal – 4

Wigeon flock – 1

Redshank – 2

Curlew 4

Moorhen – 1

Skylark – Skylark – Call of a night time migrant – Old Town Poole Listening Station

Siberian (tristis) Chiffchaff – Lytchett Fields – Ian Ballam

One of yesterdays Little Ringed Plover – Lytchett Fields – Ian Ballam

Firecrest – Norden Sewage Works – Clive Hargrave

Spring stepped up a gear this morning with 2 Little Ringed Plover found out on Lytchett Fields. Up on Coombe Heath, Arne 5+ Wheatear were also hopping along the sand tracks and at Swineham GP at least 10 Sand Martin were feeding out over the main lake. A Goshawk was reported circling high above Arne Farm by one of the Arne staff, a real Poole Harbour rarity. Out in Middlebere 5 Spoonbill were roosting and in the Arne car park 2 Firecrest were still present. At the PC World drain a few more Chiffchaff were present than usual and a Spotted Redshank was at the mouth of the channel in Holes Bay North.

Having now gone through our recordings from Sunday night into Monday, it was evident another pulse of Redwing were on the move with 384 calls recorded. Interestingly most came in the early hours with only 84 before midnight, but 300 after, possibly suggesting they had come from further afield. Other than the Redwing, not much else was on the move with just 7 Song Thrush calls, 21 Blackbird calls, 1 Dunlin and a couple of ‘unknowns’ that we’ll look into. 

Today was a cold nippy day, but with the final Poole Harbour WeBS count it was certain a decent number of reports would come in. Spoonbill numbers seem to have risen with between 6-9 reported over the last couple of weeks, yet today there were 3 out in the Wareham Channel, another 3 in the mouth of Middlebere,  3 in Brands Bay, 6 on the southern shores and 2 in Newton Bay bring the total to 17. Perhaps some new arrivals in? Out in the Wareham Channel there was a rise of Black-tailed Godwit with 130 also a large group of 21 Gadwall feeding on the mud, also 2 Spotted Redshank and 29 Grey Plover. Off Shipstal Point a tight flock of 29 Great Crested Grebe associated with 4 Goldeneye and several Red-breasted Merganser. Along the Arne Road a group of 4 Woodlark were feeding close to the road edge. Out in Brands Bay over 800 Black-tailed Godwit were feeding which must surely indicate an arrival/passage too as number have been relatively low over the last few weeks. Also still good numbers of Pintail and Wigeon, 40+ Sanderling and 3 summer plumaged Black-necked Grebe there too. In the southern Bays of the harbour 2500+ birds were counted with highlights being 6 Spoonbill, 11 Knot, 5 Spotted Redshank, 2 Common Scoter and 1 Black-necked Grebe. There were 2 Firecrest in the Arne car park again, 1 Merlin in Middlebere and 12 Sand Martin over Ham Common Lake.

We’ve set our sound recording gear up at our listening station again in Poole in the hope of picking up some migrants pass over the harbour. Thanks to Nick Hopper for providing us with an example of one of our target species to record, a Common Scoter which Nick recorded at night over Stoborough on the 31^st March 2015. Not a species you’d expect to get fly over rural areas but its well documented that Common Scoter take inland ‘short cuts’ occasionally turning up on gravel pits and reservoirs in central Britain.

Common Scoter – Common Scoter – Stoborough 31/03/15 @ 22:28 – Nick Hopper

Some more signs of spring with 6 Sand Martin over Swineham GP and what was likely to be 2 Little Ringed Plover at Lytchett Fields with 7 Water Pipit still on the pools field. Unfortunately they both flew before getting close enough to be able to ID. The 2 Firecrest were again in and around the Arne car park. A Black-necked Grebe was off Knoll Beach, Studland. Along Soldiers Road 3 Woodlark were feeding near to the roadside and several Chiffchaff were sing from sites around the harbour fringe. 

With a drop off in wind strength on Thursday night going into Friday it allowed a small passage of birds to pass over our listening station during the hours of darkness. There was a small increase in Redwing with 46 calls registered 6 Song Thrush calls, 4 Blackbird calls, 3 Curlew and 5 Oystercatcher. Although this isn’t the case most the time, we’ve noticed this last week that thrushes haven’t wanted to move into a direct headwind at all. Perhaps the wind strength was just a tad too much, whereas quite normally birds will migrate into the wind as it provides lift, and takes them further away from the centre of a weather system. There were 2 Firecrest in the Arne car park with loads of Siskin on the feeders there. Plus, the harbours first Wheatear of the spring was found down along Shipstal Beach. In Middlebere 4 Spoonbill were still present along with a Marsh Harrier and Peregrine. Meadow Pipits were on the move all day, with flocks of 5-30 birds passing over in waves out over places like Coombe Heath and Slepe Heath.

Spring really arrived today with birds, bees and butterflies all out and about. The warmth that built throughout the day saw plenty of raptors take advantage of the thermals and start displaying again. It seemed everywhere you looked Buzzards were soaring then dropping out of the sky in their acrobatic, quite dramatic areal courtship. Kestrels were even getting involved with a group of 4 circling and interacting together high over Arne Moors. Early on saw a Great White Egret flying along with a group of 10 Little Egrets at Lytchett Fields with 8 Water Pipit still out on the pools Field and a Marsh Harrier and Peregrine overhead. In Middlebere there were 6 Spoonbill and a Spotted Redshank and there was still at least 1 Firecrest at the PC World drain. Night recording from our listening station in Old Town, Poole produced just 7 Redwing, 2 Song Thrush and 2 Oystercatcher. 

There is also just a couple of weeks left of our Logo Design Competition which anyone is welcome to get involved in. We’re looking for people to get creative and inspired to enter our competition which will see the winning design used as our official logo for the Birds of Poole Harbour charity. For full details CLICK HERE

Black-tailed Godwit – Holes Bay – Denise Davis

Great White Egret – Lytchett Fileds – Ian Ballam

This NE wind we’re experiencing still seems to keeping the birds at bay, still with no reports of many migrants in the harbour yet. Even our latest night sound recording session produced just 14 Redwing calls and nothing else. After an absence of several weeks the Great White Egret reappeared in Brands Bay mid morning. In Middlebere just 3 Spoonbill today and a ringtail Hen Harrier were seen from the hide. Out off Baiter 2 Great Northern Diver were feeding along with several Red-breasted Merganser. Some interesting additions from our night recording session on March 10^th now include 1 Brambling and what we’re pretty sure is a Mandarin Duck! (Thanks Nick Hopper for the pointer)

Mandarin Duck – (Likely)Mandarin – Passing over Old Town Poole, Listening Station – 03:03 (10/03/16)

More sun, nippy wind and a few birds. A pair of Stonechat at Hatch Pond was a nice inner town unexpected find. In Middlebere 6 Spoonbill are still present along with 8 Grey Plover and 2 Spotted Redshank out on the mud. Around 200 Brent Geese remain on the fields around Middlebere and out on Hartland Skylark, Stonechat and Dartford were all active. Chiffchaffs were present and singing at the PC World Drain and Norden sewage works and an obvious pulse of Meadow Pipit were passing north throughout the morning.