Lytchett Fields came up trumps again when a Wood Sandpiper dropped in this evening, also present were Spoonbill, Little Ringed Plover, 25 Black-tailed Godwit and a Greenshank. Brownsea lagoon hosted 2 Spoonbill and the evening tern roost boasted singles of Black and Arctic Tern amongst 130 Common Tern. Late news from yesterday concerns 3 Roseate Tern in the same roost and the Nightjar being back in front of the Lake Hide. A Wheatear was present on rough ground adjacent to the Twin Sails bridge in Poole. Just outside the recording area an Osprey was seen over Morden Bog.

Limited news from today, other than 4 Spoonbill, 19 Dunlin, decent numbers of House Martin, 2 Teal, 1 Whimbrel, 1 Cuckoo, 1 Marsh Harrier, 1 Bearded Tit, 1 Willow Warbler on territory (rare here), 3 Lapwing and 11 Cetti’s Warbler territorieson RSPB Lytchett Fields. An Update on the Poole Harbour Marsh Harriers from Peter Hadrill suggests that the hatching of at least one of the pairs could be any day now, with the second pair to follow soon after. The new third pair have apparently become ‘unstuck’ in Peters words, maybe due to inexperience or the cold north winds, but there is still time for them to hopefully try again.

A nice surprise was a Great Skua off South Haven, a species rarely recorded too close in shore in these parts. Also at South Haven were 1 Gannet, 2 Sanderling and 2 Dunlin. At Brands Bay 2 Gadwall, 2 Grey Plover, 2 Ringed Plover, 87 Black-tailed Godwit, 5 Whimbrel, 22 Dunlin, 2 Swift and 1 Wheatear were present. Nightjar were heard churring at Studland and Arne. A brief early morning visit to Arne saw 2 late Brent Geese, 1 Spotted Flycatcher, 1 Cuckoo, 1 Wheatear, 4 Whimbrel and 1 Grey Plover.  There was also late news of a summer plumaged Great Northern Diver out in Poole Bay on Friday.

There was evidence of a small fall this morning, but only a tiny area of the harbour (Lytchett Bay to be exact) was being covered. Out in the bay was a stunning summer plumaged Grey Plover, also 3 Ringed Plover, 3 Dunlin, 2 Whimbrel and 36 Black-tailed Godwit with 1 Bar-tailed Godwit hiding in amongst them.  Also around the site were 3 Whitethroat, 4+ Sedge Warbler, 1 Spotted Flycatcher, 1 Wheatear, 1 Cuckoo, 1 Swift and big numbers of hirundines passing through all day. On Lytchett Fields there were 12 Dunlin, 1 Little Ringed Plover, 2 Lapwing and 32 Black-tailed Godwit.

I’ve also been continuing my night sound recording study from my Lytchett Matravers garden and have had some great results recently. Firstly I managed to get Coot added to my garden list with two separate birds over the garden on two nights on April 25^th and 26^th. I have also sound recorded several more Moorhen on various nights along with a nice range of Tawny Owl calls. But last night was the most productive night, especially for Whimbrel with individual birds and numerous flocks passing over-head between 9:30pm and 4:30am. Another surprise, and another garden tick was a Ringed Plover, which went over the garden around 2:15am. Below are two recordings of the Ringed Plover and one of three Whimbrel flocks that passed over-head in the dead of night.

Ringed Plover – Flight calls of a night migrant – Lytchett Matravers 07/05/15

Whimbrel flock – Flight calls of a flock migrating at night – Lytchett Matravers 07/05/15

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?