Today was a quieter day today with everyone back at work, but still some nice finds. A Bearded Tit at Hatch Pond was a good find, as records of this species here aren’t too frequent.  At Holes Bay NE there was still 1 Goldeneye, 1 Spoonbill, 2 Common Sandpiper and a Peregrine as well as a Red-throated Diver just south of the railway bridge. Off Middle Beach 1 Red-necked Grebe, 27 Black-necked Grebe, 3 Slavonian Grebe, 2 Great Northern Diver, 2 Red-throated Diver, 1 Black-throated Diver, 14 Common Scoter, 15 Gannet and 8 Auk sp. At Manor Farm there were 17 Yellowhammer, which is a good count and there was 1 Great Northern Diver off Baiter. I have also uploaded a new video, this time of Sanderling and Bar-tailed Godwit feeding at Shore Road, Sandbanks. You can watch the video HERE

Holes Bay NE continues to be flavour of the month as not only are the 2 Spoonbill, 4 Spotted Redshank and vast numbers of Wigeon Teal, Avocet, Redshank, Black-tailed Godwit and 2 Common Sandpiper still putting on a good show, but they were joined by a redhead Smew today too, until it was flushed by a canoeist. The Black Guillemot spent most of the day sitting off the Brownsea southern shore, obliging at times, and not at others.  A Bittern was again at Swineham GP, which flew east along the pits. At least 8 Marsh Harrier were present there too along with 2 Sparrowhawk, 1 Kestrel and 1 Peregrine. 16 of the Poole harbour Spoonbill flock were in the Wareham Channel, an area that has also seen a big rise in gulls coming into roost in the last few days. A Red-necked Grebe was out in Shell Bay with 4 Black-necked Grebe and a single Purple Sandpiper was in-front of the haven. Off Middle Beach there were 13 Common Scoter, 1 Red-necked Grebe, 1 Slavonian Grebe and 20 Black-necked Grebe.

The Black Guillemot was located off Brownsea again during the morning and was then later found near the harbour entrance. My prediction is this general area is where it will hopefully now settle for a period of time, but given its previous behaviour it could well go missing again for a few weeks! The 2 Red-necked Grebe where off South Beach with one later moving to Shell Bay. With a Slavonian Grebe there too.  At Lytchett Bay a male Merlin, ringtail Hen Harrier a Marsh Harrier were all noted. A flock of 8 Pintail on Brownsea was the second highest total ever-recorded on Brownsea with 11 in January 1986 being the highest. This is pretty remarkable considering there are often 50+ in Brands Bay less than half a mile away and a couple of hundred in the harbour each winter. Black-necked Grebe were spread right along Studland Bay with 7 just inside the harbour mouth and off Middle Beach 13 Common Scoter, 1 Great Northern Diver, 5 Great Crested Grebe and 3 Sandwich Tern were counted.  A Little Gull was in Brands Bay. In Holes Bay there were 2 Spoonbill, 176 Avocet, 420 Black-tailed Godwit, 188 Teal, 396Wigeon, 127 Shelduck, 1 Peregrine and a Firecrest along back drive.  Swineham GP still holds Pochard, Tufted Duck, Shoveler, Teal, Gadwall and plenty of Greylag and Canada Geese. I’ve also uploaded some new videos of the Spoonbills in Holes Bay and Fieldfare in Wareham which you can watch HERE

Happy New Year everyone! The Poole Harbour birding year started off with a bang today with several good species recorded. The Black Guillemot has finally entered the harbour and was seen feeding of the SE corner of Brownsea. The Great White Egret was seen again on Littlesea at dusk. It was confirmed that there are indeed 2 Red-necked Grebe in the Studland area as one was feeding off Shell Bay whilst another was off South Beach. There were also 6 Black-necked Grebe and 10 Common Scoter off Middle Beach and a Slavonian Grebe 3 Black-necked Grebe and 2 Sandwich Tern off Shell Beach. A group of 3 Great Northern Diver were off the Brownsea north shore. A Little gull was seen over Furzey Island and then later seen at Lytchett Bay. An impressive 5 Hen Harrier were noted going into roost and Marsh Harrier were seen at several sites around the harbour.  There was a Merlin at Middlebere along with the usual channel species. Spoonbills were seen in Brands Bay, Lytchett Bay, Arne Bay and Brownsea Lagoon. Today’s video is of the Spotted Redshank flock that’s been choosing to feed at the mouth of the outflow of Holes Bay over the last few days…

TIP: To watch in HD, when watching the video, hover your curser over the screen so the panel at the bottom of the video screen appears. Click on the cog shaped symbol and then click on 1080HD. This will turn the video into HD after a few seconds

Wow, what a year, and what a great end to the year too with the discovery of a Green-winged Teal in Brands Bay this afternoon. The Black Guillemot was seen briefly off the harbour mouth again whilst 3 Purple Sandpiper gave exceptional views down to 5 feet on the sea wall at North Haven. There were 32 Spoonbill at Arne, and another 2 feeding in the outflow at Holes Bay, again giving stunning views down to less than 10m away as were 3 Spotted Redshank. Out of Middle beach there were 13 Common Scoter, 18 Black-necked Grebe and 2 Slavonian Grebe. Both Holes Bay and Brands Bay were both full of birds again on the low tide consisting of many Teal, Wigeon, Shelduck, Redshank, Oystercatcher, Avocet, Grey Plover, Black-tailed Godwit etc. The rising tide at Shore Road pushed 15 Sanderling close into the sea wall and 100+ Bar-tailed Godwit. 2014 has been an exceptional year for birds in Poole Harbour and I’ll be writing an annual review in the coming weeks, but until then thanks again for all your support and interest in our work and we wish you a very happy and birdy 2015.

I spent today videoing some of the harbours ‘best show’ off birds and will upload them over the coming days, but for now I hope you enjoy these Purple Sandpiper that were feeding at North Haven today and HAPPY NEW YEAR! (TIP: To watch in HD, when watching the video, hover your curser over the screen so the panel at the bottom of the video screen appears. Click on the cog shaped symbol and then click on 1080HD. This will turn the video into HD after a few seconds)

Another bird filled day starting with the Studland area. The Great White Egret was on Littlsea mid morning and 22 Black-necked Grebe were off Middle Beach with 13 Common Scoter and a handful of Great Crested Grebe. Brands Bay looked incredible on the falling tide with the sun lighting it up.  The bay its self was full to the brim of Teal, Wigeon, Pintail, Redshank, Black-tailed Godwit, Grey Plover, Oystercatcher, Dunlin, and Avocet, not to mention the odd Shoveler, Gadwall and Goldeneye. Down by the houseboats in Bramble Bush Bay were 17 Sanderling and 15 Ringed Plover with 2 Purple Sandpiper on the sea wall of North Haven. Holes Bay saw 21 Spoonbill with another 2 including a colour-ringed bird at Lytchett Bay. Also at Holes Bay a group of 5 Spotted Redshank were near the outflow along with 2 Common Sandpiper and a Kingfisher. At Swineham a Bittern was noted near the gravel pits and off Swineham Point 2 Jack Snipe, 12 Rock Pipit and numerous Bearded Tit groups. There are currently 3 Hen Harrier patrolling the marshes between Middlebere and the Wareham Channel and a minimum of 10 Marsh Harrier. I was also sent some information today regarding a colour ringed Black-tailed Godwit that was seen out in Lytchett Bay this weekend. The data that has come back from the BTO states that the bird was first ringed in Iceland on the 13th June 2003, making the bird 11 years old!

Today was the Poole Harbour wetland bird survey and some big numbers of wetland species were reported. Off Arne it seems there could have been around 1000 Avocet stretched along the Middlebere, Wytch Lake, Fitzworth area although they were fairly mobile so a bit of double counting may have occurred. Spoonbill were feeding off Arne, Green Island and in Holes Bay. Species such as Wigeon, Teal, Dunlin, Pintail and Shelduck all seemed to have increased quite a bit. There were 119 Bar-tailed Godwit and 41 Sanderling at Shore Road, Sandbanks. Hen Harriers were seen at Middlebere and Swineham and the usual 8+ Marsh Harrier were around the Wareham Channel.  On the north shore of Brownsea 2 Spotted Redshank and a Common Sandpiper were counted. In the evening grebe roost in Studland Bay 22 Black-necked Grebe were recorded and 11 Common Scoter were also present. The cold weather has attracted more duck to Swineham GP including 102 Gadwall, 57 Shoveler, 8 Pochard and big numbers of Greylag and Canada Geese. Down off Poole Quay 12 Ringed Plover were present and 2 Sandwich Tern.

Today I accomplished something I’ve never done in Poole Harbour before, and that is encountering all possible raptor species (including owls). I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the harbour is a raptor magnet in the winter and you could encounter any of the following species at numerous places around the harbour from November through to march. The ten species included Kestrel x 1 by the Wareham bypass, 
Peregrine x 2 – 1 at Holme Bridge and 1 at Arne, Merlin x 2  – 1 at Middlebere and 1 on Hartland, Hen Harrier x 1 on Hartland Moor,
 Marsh Harrier x 8 around the Wareham Channel,
Common Buzzard at  Arne,
Sparrowhawk x 1 over Wareham,
Short-eared Owl x 1 on Hartland,
Barn Owl x 1 at Middlebere and Tawny Owl x 1 at Holton Lee.  A few big groups of Greylag Geese, around 50+ came in to roost just before dusk and settled at Swineham, it was too dark to make out any ‘scarcities’ but these are the kind of flocks that Pink-footed and White-fronted Geese like to tag on to so well worth checking if you come across any geese flocks. Middlebere looked superb late afternoon on a falling tide with 200+ Avocet, 300+ Lapwing, 100+ Dunlin, plus numerous Redshank, 1 Yellow-legged Gull, Teal, Wigeon and plenty of sharming Water Rail. There were 2 Spoonbill in Holes Bay and a Chiffchaff at the outflow. Finally, I was lucky enough to capture some footage of the Short-eared Owl on Hartland this afternoon, plus some video of a large Curlew flock on the flooded fields at Swineham and a Lapwing in the Frome Valley.  You can watch the videos HERE

Firstly, we here at BoPH would like to wish you all (a slightly belated) very merry Christmas and a (not so belated) very happy new year. Your support and interest in our work and various projects is key to what we do and we can’t thank you for your support enough, so we look forward to meeting, speaking and working with you in the next 12 months and lets hope for another bird filled year in Poole Harbour. Bird-wise, the only highlights have included sightings from around the Studland area where 19 Black-necked Grebe and 11 Common Scoter were present off Middle Beach and the 3 Purple Sandpiper and 35 Sanderling were on the Sandbanks groynes. 

Well, Christmas is almost upon us and the harbour has been delivering its own set of Christmas presents recently with Red-necked Grebes, Black Guillemot, Bean Geese, numerous Marsh and Hen Harriers, vast wader flocks and a good selection of open water species. As everyone winds down for the festive period I strongly urge you to get out and explore the harbour in a bid to walk off that Christmas pudding and those mince pies. This morning I visited South beach again to see what I could find out on the water, and by scanning back and forth across Studland Bay I counted 26 Black-necked Grebe, 1 Slavonian Grebe, 10 Common Scoter, 1 Great Northern Diver and 8 Red-breasted Merganser. Late news, but a Great Bustard flew over Lytchett Bay on Sunday, which will be one of the released birds from the Salisbury Plain reintroduction program. There are still are minimum of 3 Purple Sandpiper on the groynes at North Haven, often association with Dunlin, Ringed Plover and Sanderling. I managed to get some footage of the Common Scoter flock this morning off South Beach and also of a decent Lapwing flock at Swineham and a Grey Plover hanging out with a Turnstone in Bramble Bush Bay. You can watch each of the videos HERE.