It’s a great time to be out birding in the harbour at present, with birds of many species turning up right across the area. Highlights from the last 4 days include…

Thursday 20^th August

Four Osprey were feeding in the Wareham Channel which seemed to consist of three adults and one juvenile. A Knot arrived on RSPB Lytchett Fields and joined 5 Wood Sandpiper, 3 Ruff, 20 Ringed Plover, 1 Little Ringed Plover, 41 Dunlin, 6 Greenshank, 8 Common Sandpiper, 10 Green Sandpiper, 42 Lapwing and 10 Snipe, plus 2 Osprey were out in the Bay. Off Pilots Point, Studland a Balearic Shearwater was a great record also there 15+ Gannet, 4 Common Scoter, 3 Whitethroat and 7 Ringed Plover. From the House Boats looking towards Middlebere revealed an Osprey and 1 Spoonbill, whilst in Brands Bay 10 Ringed Plover, 1 Greenshank, 1 Knot and 3 Turnstone were the highlights. There was also a Balearic Shearwater noted from Branksome. At Middlebere there were 8 Spoonbill, 1 Osprey, 4 Yellow Wagtail, 1 Spotted flycatcher, 2 Spotted Redshank,, 1 Greenshank and 2 Yellow-legged gull.

Friday 21st August

4 Osprey were again noted in the Middlebere channel at dawn along with a whopping count of 47 Little Egret. Three Marsh Harrier were also counted coming out of their roost. Another Osprey was seen fishing out near Newton Bay and another Balearic Shearwater was noted from Pilots Point, along with an Arctic Skua. RSPB Lytchett Fields had 4 Wood Sandpiper, 3 Ruff, 17 Ringed Plover, 45 Dunlin and 1 Knot, also 1 Marsh Harrier and 1 Hobby.

Saturday 22st August

On RSPB Lytchett Fields 4 Wood Sandpiper, 3 Ruff, 1 Knot, 40 Dunlin, 1 Ringed Plover, 8 Green Sandpiper, 6 Common Sandpiper, 15 Snipe and 2 Greenshank. 3 Osprey were again in the Wareham Channel plus a new Marsh Harrier came out of the roost, which has involved 6 different birds over the last month. On the Brownsea Lagoon the Spoonbill total rose to 11 and there were 5 Spotted Redshank. Middlebere saw a good range of birds too with 2 Osprey, 1 Marsh Harrier, 1 Hobby and 2 Kestrel, wader-wise 1 Whimbrel, 4 Knot, 1 Ruff, 1 Wood Sandpiper, 3 Green Sandpiper, 2 Greenshank, 5 Spotted Redshank and a good count of 12 Yellow-legged Gull.

Sunday 23rd August

Sunday saw the arrival of the first 2 Little Stint on Lytchett Fields, also 4 Wood Sandpiper, 2 Ruff, 1 Knot, 11 Green Sandpiper, 6 Common Sandpiper and 4 Yellow-Wagtail. A ringing session here also saw 8 Grasshopper Warbler. A Pied Flycatcher was in a private garden in Upton and a Garden Warbler and Hobby were seen from Lytchett Bay view. 

Over the last few days the harbour has seen some excellent bird counts from a variety of species. A full account will be written up tomorrow, but highlights have included still at least 4 Osprey in the harbour, most visible out in the Wareham Channel, and also the dead trees at Middlebere, and one even over at South Haven. The 4 Wood Sandpipers remain at Lytchett Fields, and are now joined by 2 Little Stint which were feeding together along with 3 Ruff, 17 Ringed Plover, 1 Little Ringed Plover and a wonderful selection of other waders. If you haven’t been to Lytchett Fields I suggest you try and get down as soon as possible. For directions click HERE and click on the Lytchett Bay section  of the map. On Brownsea the Spoonbill total has now swelled to 11 birds.  Yesterday evening, Middlebere was another hot spot yesterday with a Wood Sandpiper, 2 Osprey, 3 Spoonbill and good numbers of other waders. 

Five seemed to be the magic number today, even though the rain set in, and tried to ruin the day. It started off when 5 Osprey were reported in and around the Arne peninsular, with 3 even roosting in one tree during the rain, whilst another was fishing in the Wareham Channel and another was over in Middlebere. Don’t forget we’re after your Osprey sightings. For more information READ HERE. At RSPB fields the 5 Wood Sandpiper were present again along with 2 Ruff and a good spread of regular waders.

Lytchett Bays Wood Sandpiper record lasted one day, when 5 were counted in the morning, a fantastic total for the harbour. With the Wood Sands were 3 juv Ruff still, 12 Ringed Plover, 23 Dunlin, 10 Common Sandpiper, 6 Green Sandpiper, 16 Snipe, 28 Lapwing, 50+ Redshank and an influx of 98 Teal, 2 Whinchat and 3 Yellow Wagtail. On Brownsea there are now 8 Spoonbill, and this total is likely to increase week by week until late October. Last year we reached a maximum of 49…can we see 50 this year? An Osprey put on a good show in the Middlebere Channel, repeatedly fishing until finally in caught a fish and flew off towards Wytch. Ballard hosted 23 Whitethroat, 2 Redstart and 1 Spotted Flycatcher. In Brands Bay a Ruff, 2 Whimbrel and 3 Bar-tailed Godwit were counted and there was a Spotted Flycatcher at Littlesea. The scrub around Holes Bay north saw 1 Redstart, 1 Whitethroat, 3 Garden Warbler and a Reed Warbler.  

An incredible total of 4 Wood Sandpiper were counted on RSPB Lytchett Fields yesterday morning, which has to be close to a Dorset record for this species in one place at one time. This coincided with a site record of 13 Common Sandpiper spread across both sets of fields plus 3 juvenile Ruff, 7 Ringed Plover, 20 Dunlin, 9 Green Sandpiper, 1 Greenshank, lots of Redshank, Lapwing and Black-tailed Godwit, 5 Common Snipe and 2 Whinchat. The scrub at the top of Holes Bay north saw 1 Redstart, 3 Garden Warbler, 8 Blackcap, plenty of Willow Warbler as well as a Common Sandpiper by the outflow channel.  At South Haven there were 8 Sanderling and 1 Common Sandpiper and in Brands Bay 21 Teal, 1 Whimbrel, 5 Bar-tailed Godwit, 2 Spotted Flycatcher and 2 Yellow Wagtail. On Brownsea 3 Spotted Redshank, 2 Spoonbill, 18 Avocet and 2 Ringed Plover were noted on the lagoon webcam.

I also mentioned yesterday that I would post three types of passerine calls which I recorded during a night sound recording session from my garden on the 15/08/15. Now I’m not going to pretend I know what these are, but from having had several conversations with friends and colleagues it’s suggested that these calls could be of either, Pied Flycatcher, Spotted Flycatcher and even Robin. Which is which to me is a total unknown at present but we’re working on finding out a lot more about these types of calls and will hopefully one day (soon) be able to assign them to a specific species. For now I’ll just lable them Passerine call 1, 2 and 3. The reason for showing them is to illustrate the fact that even though they sound the same, on the sonagram they are in fact quite different, possibly suggesting that each is a different species.

Passerine call 1 – slight downward inflection

Passerine call 2 – sharp rising inflection

Passerine call 3 – slight rising inflection

Yet again waders were the main feature, especially at RSPB Lytchett Fields where the viewpoints offered great views of a whole range of species including 2 Wood Sandpiper, 3 Ruff, 7 Common Sandpiper, 1 Greenshank, 2 Green Sandpiper, 12 Dunlin, 77 Redshank, 7 Ringed Plover, 90 Black-tailed Godwit, 5 Snipe, 20 Lapwing as well as 7 Yellow Wagtail, 1 Spotted Flycatcher and good numbers of Willow-chiff. Up around Old Harry and Ballard migrants included 1 Yellow Wagtail, 35+ Willow Warbler, 5 Chiffchaff, 13 Whitethroat, 1 Lesser Whitethroat, 2 Wheatear, 1 Redstart and 2 Spotted Flycatcher. At Greenland’s Farm, Studland there was 1 Hobby, 7 Willow Warbler, 3 Whitethroat, 2 Lesser Whitethroat, 1 Garden Warbler, 3 Wheatear, 4 Redstart and 2 Spotted Flycatcher.

I’ve finally got round to doing some more night recording sessions to which I’ll carry out from my garden and the lower Frome Valley over the following weeks. Last night I set up in my garden and had 1 Whimbrel, 1 Common Sandpiper, 1 Ringed Plover, 1 Water Rail, 1 Tree Pipit, 1 Grey Heron plus a series of six different passerine calls over the course of the night comprising of possibly Pied or Spotted Flycatcher and even Robin. There were three examples which seem quite different to one another which I’ll post tomorrow, but in the mean time here is the Ringed Plover passing over my house at around 2:30am

Ringed Plover – calls of a night time migrant – Lytchett Matravers

Today was another good day busy with birds, but this time in slightly more enjoyable weather. Starting off at Studland where 2 Black Tern were found feeding in a mixed tern flock off the houseboats, also in the area 9 Ringed Plover, 7 Common Sandpiper and a Yellow Wagtail and good numbers of common warblers. At Lytchett Bay a Wood Sandpiper appeared and a juv Ruff was still present, also 5 Ringed Plover, 2 Common Sandpiper, 2 Green Sandpiper and 20+ Dunlin, 1 Whinchat, 1 Spotted Flycatcher and 1 Firecrest. Just across the bay a ringing session at Lytchett Heath produced almost 200 birds including 6 Grasshopper Warbler and 2 Tree Pipit amongst the many many Sedge Warbler. An Osprey drifted over Fleetsbridge late afternoon heading towards Poole Town Centre. The scrub around the northern section of Holes Bay held 1 Pied Flycatcher, 1 Spotted Flycatcher, 1 Redstart, 4 Garden Warbler, 1 Whitethroat and a Reed Warbler.

The dire weather ‘downed’ a lot of birds as they tried to take shelter whilst feeding at the same time. A likely Melodious Warbler was seen at RSPB Lytchett Fields first thing in amongst a mixture of Willow Warbler and a Garden Warbler. On the fields were 15 Ringed Plover, 5 Common Sandpiper, 2 Ruff, 1 juv Little Ringed Plover, 15 Dunlin, 3 Green Sandpiper, 3 Kingfisher, 3 Yellow Wagtail, 1 Hobby over, and good numbers of the usual Redshank, Black-tailed Godwit and Lapwing. At Swineham a Caspian Gull was reported from Swineham Point, also present was 1 Pied Flycatcher, 9 Willow Warbler, 7 Reed Warbler, 1 Sedge Warbler, 1 Wheatear, 1 Hobby, 3 Snipe, 1 Common Sandpiper, 1 Green Sandpiper and a Ringed Plover. At Upton CP 6 Spotted Flycatcher and a Pied Flycatcher were near the cattle trough in the field near the park entrance, also a male Redstart. On Brownsea 3 Spotted Redshank, 2 Spoonbill and 8 Greenshank were present. Brands Bay saw 1 Knot, 1 Arctic Tern, 1 Spoonbill and 2 Common Sandpiper, whilst at South Haven there were 11 Sanderling, 11 Ringed Plover and 1 Dunlin.

A ringing session at Lytchett Bay highlight a big movement of Sedge Warbler through the harbour with 186 ringed in a few hours, along with 4 Grasshopper Warbler and a Kingfisher.  On RSPB Lytchett Fields there were 10 Ringed Plover, 2 juv Ruff, 7 Green Sandpiper, 15 Dunlin, 4 Common Sandpiper, 1 Yellow Wagtail and 3 Greenshank. Redstarts were noted in gardens today in north Poole and Upton. A couple of Pied Flycatchers have occurred in the Arne car park this week with a mix of common migrants. On Brownsea there were 3 Spotted Redshank and 18 Avocet. Holes Bay north held 3 Common Sandpiper, 6 adult Yellow-legged Gull and 117 Black-tailed Godwit. In Brands Bay there were 2 Ringed Plover, 8 Bar-tailed Godwit, 180 Black-tailed Godwit, 4 Whimbrel, 1 Greenshank, 25 Dunlin and 1 Common Sandpiper. At South Haven 10 Ringed Plover, 3+ Sanderling, and 2 Turnstone made up a nice wader flock on the beach. At Littlesea a Spoonbill passed over-head and a Common Sandpiper was noted. At Upton CP there were 4 Spotted Flycatcher and a Garden Warbler around the paddocks.

Today was another cracking day for birds in the harbour with plenty to feast your eyes on. Firstly, a Melodious Warbler was found at South Haven, Studland first thing and was seen only a handful of times throughout the rest of the day. This is a good record, and from what I believe only the 7^th record for the harbour. Also at South Haven 3 Common Whitethroat, 1 Lesser Whitethroat, 4 Garden Warbler and 1 Swift. On RSPB Lytchett Fields a Wood Sandpiper was present for its second day with 2 Ruff, 3 Ringed Plover, 4 Snipe, 13 Dunlin, 18 Green Sandpiper and a Hobby chasing after hirundines. At Lytchett Heath there was 1 Grasshopper Warbler, 1 Garden Warbler, 30+ Willow Warbler, 1 Whitethroat, 1 Yellow Wagtail, 1 Nightjar, 1 Whimbrel and 1 Cetti’s Warbler. Brownsea was busy with 7 Greenshank, 18 Avocet, 2 Spotted Redshank, 1 Whimbrel, good numbers of Dunlin, Ringed Plover and Redshank, 1 Spoonbill, 1 Common Sandpiper and 1 Kingfisher. At Holton Lee 2 Tree Pipit passed over.

Wood Sandpiper – RSPB Lytchett Fields