We recently received some info from Chris Thain, DWT warden on Brownsea, of a mini influx of Med Gulls on Monday 4th of May, 3 of which were colour ringed. He sent the details away and got a very quick response for each of the birds. Se the recovery details below…

Green ring 32LL, ringed as a pullus in Doel, Belgium in June 2011 has only been seen once before since then in Belfast, Northern Island, in April 2012.

Green ring 9M8 ringed as pullus at Sablines, Seine-et-Marne, France, June 2011 has been seen twice before: Cornwall July 2013, Ferrybridge Weymouth, March 2014.

Green RH22 ringed as a pullus at Polder de Sebastopol, Vendee, France in June 2012. Seen 3 times at Lodmoor in September 2012, Morocco in December 2012, then 6 times at Lodmoor and Radipole in 2013, and Weymouth area again, 4 times, in April and July 2014.

The wind apparently eases off tomorrow, hopefully giving the birds a chance to fly more than an inch off the ground without risk of being blown to Scotland! As a result there hasn’t been much news other than a short sea-watch off Branksome producing several groups of Swift, Swallow and a single House Martin in off the sea, plenty of Common and Sandwich Tern passing by and a few Gannet out in Poole Bay. At Lytchett Bay there were 3 Ringed Plover, 1 Spoonbill, 1 Wheatear, several Whimbrel dotted around the site, 1 Greenshank and 98 Black-tailed Godwit. Just outside the area there was a good report of a possible Common Crane over Lytchett Matravers.

I have also just finished writing up the trip report and species list from our recent Dorset Discovery Spring Tour, which you can read here –

 http://www.birdsofpooleharbour.co.uk/birds-poole-harbour-and-rspb-dorset-discovery-spring-tour-april-27th-29th-2015

If you want to get involved, and would like to see the best Dorset has to offer, then the details for our up and coming Summer Tour are available here –

http://www.birdsofpooleharbour.co.uk/dorset-discovery-summer-tour-29th-june-1st-july

Well, at least this morning started off OK, we’ll just have to wait and see how strong the forecasted winds of tomorrow will be…hopefully strong enough to make a few skuas want to rest and take shelter in Poole Bay. The best from today included a Lesser Whitethroat on territory up on Old Harry and 11 Wheatears in a field there too. A steady trickle of hirundines and Swifts came through for most of the day with 30+ over Swineham this morning, along with 1 Cuckoo, 6 Reed Warbler and a Marsh Harrier there too. At Challow Hill 2 Lesser Whitethroat were singing, as were 2 Nightingale, 1 Cuckoo, 3 Yellowhammer, 1 Peregrine and 5 Whitethroat. At Lytchett Bay there were 2 Egyptian Geese, 2 Spotted Redshank, 3 Greenshank, 3 Black-tailed Godwit, 7 Gadwall, 98 Shelduck, 1 Greenshank 3 Whimbrel. There was also a Cuckoo on Slepe Heath.

We’re pleased to say that there is an exciting and very informative up and coming talk coming on May 20^th,hosted by Dr Emily Joachim who will be talking about her incredible research, passion and drive to help save the countries smallest owl…the Little Owl. For more info click HERE

It was also nice to get out early this morning too and take some video footage which I haven’t for a while. CLICK HERE for more footage of recent spring birds.

Nightingale – Corfe – 04/05/15 

To watch in HD press the play icon and hover the curser over the cog shaped symbol and click on 1080.

It seems the May bank holiday has been a bit of a right off in terms of weather (hoping for a better day tomorrow), but there were a few signs of movement when the weather turned. In Brands Bay today there was a Curlew Sandpiper (rare spring visitor to Poole Harbour) and a Little Tern there too, with a Roseate Tern on the Brownsea Lagoon yesterday. At Lytchett Bay there were 3 Spoonbill, 9 Greenshank, 4 Ringed Plover, 10 Dunlin, 1 Yellow Wagtail a whopping 166 Shelduck, 28 Black-tailed Godwit and a Whimbrel. Swineham had a nice list with Cuckoo, 2 Whimbrel, 1 Marsh Harrier, Bearded Tit, 10 Swift, 20 Sand Martin, 2 Sedge Warbler, 5 Reed Warbler and 3 Reed Bunting. On Brownsea the Sandwich and Common Terns are starting to court and can be seen on the breeding islands and there are still at least 6 Avocet there too. Up on Hartland there were 2 Cuckoo a Hobby and a Whinchat. 

Another quiet day with not much reported other than 2 Spoonbill, 3 Greenshank, 2 Black-tailed Godwit and a few Teal on RSPB Lytchett Fields. On Upton Heath yesterday there was a Hobby.

More excitingly was after a few weeks of not being able to analyse my night recordings from my garden due to broken software, I am now back up and running again and have had a nice surprise over the garden recently. I was listening to my recordings at work the other day on my iPod when I recognised a familiar co-ick, co-ick, co-ick. and instantly thought NIGHTJAR, but wanted to double check, as this would be quite a garden record for Lytchett Matravers in early spring! I contacted local author and fellow sound recordist Nick Hopper who kindly checked my recording out on his software and made a sonagram to confirm it was indeed a Nightjar. Below is the recording made at 4:10am on 23/04/15

Nightjar – Flight calls of a night-time migrant – Lytchett Matravers 

Apologies for the lack of updates over the last few days, we’ve been away hosting our second Birds of Poole Harbour / RSPB Dorset Discovery Tour. This was our spring tour, focusing on several well-known migration hotspots, as well focusing on some of the popular resident species and abundance of non-avian wildlife. I’ll be writing a full tour report over the coming days but over the 3 days we finished on 104 species of bird and a nice variety of reptile, mammal and butterfly species. 

Considering the time of year, its been fairly quiet locally with ‘nothing new’ in other than a scattering of migrants including a male Whinchat at Lytchett Fields, a Garden Warbler at Greenland’s Farm and the usual Wheatear and Blackcap at numerous sites. Lytchett Fields has even gone quite with just 1 Little Ringed Plover remaining, 2 Greenshank, a handful of Lapwing and several Black-tailed Godwit. At least 4 Spoonbill remain which seem to commute between Arne, Holes bay and Lytchett Bay whilst Cuckoo’s remain scarce with just the odd one singing around Arne and Hartland Moor. Good news regarding the Poole Harbour Marsh Harriers, as it looks as if there could be a third female beginning to nest, so we’re keeping a close eye. Other than that, there is plenty of food deliveries being made to hungry chick of numerous species, showing signs it could be a productive spring…but will it last?

There was a bit of coverage for several locations around the harbour today, starting at RSPB Lytchett Fields where there were Little Ringed Plover x 3, Ringed Plover x 3,
Greenshank x 2,
Dunlin x 22 summer plumaged birds, 
Snipe x 1,
Black-tailed Godwit x 4 on fields / 36 in bay,
Whimbrel x 1,
Sedge Warbler x 1,
Reed Warbler x 1,
Blackcap x 3,
House Martin x 3,
Sand Martin x 5,
Swallow 20+,
Pied Wagtail 20+,
Shoveler x 2 ( a pair),
Gadwall x 7 and
Cetti’s Warbler x 1. Around the Studland area there were 2 Little Tern feeding off South Haven with 40+ Common Terns first thing with 3 Whimbrel on the beach and several Sandwich Tern around too. In Brands Bay at lunchtime there were 4 Grey Plover, 44 Black-tailed Godwit, 26 Dunlin and 5 Whimbrel. On Greenlands there were 2 Wheatear and there was a Garden Warbler at South Haven. The Pools Harbour Marsh Harriers seem to be getting on with things nicely with news that two females are likely to be nesting with a possible third too !!!

Just to let you all know that we will be changing our Birds of Poole Harbour email address with immediate effect to… 

birdsofpooleharbour@gmail.com

Highlights from today included still 5 Little Ringed Plover at RSPB Lytchett Fields along with 1 Marsh Harrier, 1 Whimbrel, 30 Black-tailed Godwit, 2 Dunlin, 15 Whitethroat, 1 Lesser Whitethroat, 1 Garden Warbler, 2 Willow Warbler, 2 Wheatear, 1 Reed Warbler and numerous Blackcap. At Swineham there was Black Redstart (rare here), 1 Swift, 400 Sand Martin, 35 Swallow, 1 Greenshank, 1 Whimbrel over, 4 Reed Warbler ,  1 Sedge Warbler 1 and 1 Willow Warbler

The breeze kicked in fairly early but the sun managed to keep things very warm for most of the day. On the Poole Harbour boundary at Challow Hill, Corfe there was a nice smattering of migrants with 1 Nightingale, 1 Garden Warbler, 1 Whinchat, 5+ Whitethroat, 6 Yellowhammer, 10+ Blackcap, 3 Willow Warbler, 5 Skylark and 3 Stonechat. At Arne there were a good number of Whimbrel moving up and down the Middlebere Channel, also there 2 Whitethroat, 4 Spoonbill and plenty of hirundines moving through. At Lytchett Bay there were 4 Little Ringed Plover still, 6 Spoonbill, 3 Whimbrel, 2 Greenshank, 3 Reed Warbler, 3 Lapwing and a Peregrine. At Upton CP there were 180 Black-tailed Godwits and in Holes Bay NE there was 1 Whimbrel, 2 Greenshank and 1 Common Sandpiper. 

Yet another glorious day, and yet again very little reported with 4 Little Ringed Plover still holding on at RSPB Lytchett Fields with 1 Greenshank and 5 Gadwall there too. Just outside the Poole Harbour area Tree Pipits, Woodlarks, Cuckoo and Dartford Warbler are all active at Morden Bog. A single Whitethroat was in scrub next to Holes Bay and a regular trickle of Blackcaps has occurred each morning over the last few days.

I would like to thank Peter Hadrill too for allowing us to place his 2014/15 Poole Harbour winter Harrier write up on the website. For those of you that don’t know, Peter dedicates an incredible amount of hours monitoring Poole Harbours harrier movements (Hen and Marsh) right the way through the year, noting and memorising every new arrival, departure and breeding attempt…a truly remarkable and highly valuable source of information. This year he was even rewarded with a ringed Hen Harrier arriving, allowing an origin of our over-wintering harriers to be discovered. You can read his wonderful report HERE