As predicted the harbour is now starting to seem a bit busier with open water species such as Red-breasted Mergansers and Great Crested Grebes with the former now appearing in good numbers in the bays around the harbour entrance. A Great Northern Diver was out off Bramble Bush Bay and 3 Goldeneye were in Brands Bay. 4 Velvet Scoter that passed the harbour mouth, heading towards Studland Bay was a good record. Its possible they may have even of settled in Studland Bay somewhere. There was also a single Purple Sandpiper on the sea wall just in front of the Haven Hotel, and 8 Ringed Plover on rocks there. A Black Redstart was in outside my office window in Old Town Poole. A Ring Ouzel was along the Corfe River Valley. Off Branksome yesterday morning 20+ Gannet, 4 Razorbill, 6 Kittiwake and 6 Brent Geese passed by.  A Marsh Harrier passed over Slepe Moor and it was noted that Redwing and Fieldfare numbers are certainly increasing day by day. There were 4 Sandwich Tern in Brands Bay with a Merlin chasing pipit across there too. There were 26 Ringed Plover on Shell Bay Beach along with 5 Sanderling.

ADDITIONAL NEWS – A Short-eared Owl was seen on the eastern edge of Hartland Moor yesterday evening and 100+ Fieldfare were found roosting out in the heather there. There are still 2 ringtail Hen Harrier and 8 Marsh Harrier present in the harbour.

A magic moment this morning when during a Branksome sea watch a beautiful Short-eared Owl flew in off the sea right past us in conditions you wouldn’t even expect to see a duck in let alone an Owl. The bird fought its way across the beach and then up over the chine inland, which is something I’ve never witnessed before. I know Portland or Durlston sometimes see Short-eared Owl come in off the sea, but I would never have expected on at Branksome. This experience (only just) surpassed a moment that occurred only a minute previously when a Leach’s Storm Petrel bombed past our watch point heading west to east, before it vanished into the gloom. Other birds noted were a handful of Kittiwake, 2 Dunlin, 1 Ringed Plover, several Brent Geese and 2 Gannet. At Baiter the Brent flock is increasing with 292 today, 3 Sandwich Tern, 1 Ringed Plover, 1 Dunlin and 6 Turnstone. At Lytchett Bay 6 Greenshank, 1 Spotted Redshank, 2 Grey Wagtail, 1 Marsh Harrier and 2 Chiffchaff.

Saturdays blow passed through pretty quickly and the hope that a Little Auk may get found in the harbour somewhere didn’t come to fruition, although there’s still plenty of time for that to happen. Starting with the Poole Harbour raptors there are still two ringtail Hen Harrier about, but it seems the male that was present for a short time last week has now moved through. 7 Marsh Harrier were seen leaving the roost and 2 Merlin were out over Arne Moors. In total there were 24 Black-necked Grebe counted with 23 in Studland Bay and 1 in Bramble Bush Bay, there were also 9 Common Scoter in Studland Bay, 3 Ring-necked Parakeet near Fort Henry and 3 Dartford Warbler near the toll booth at the chain ferry. The fields around Swineham, Bestwall and Arne Moors are extremely flooded at the moment and are holding good numbers of Black-tailed Godwit, Lapwing , Curlew, Graylag and Canada Geese. Along the old tram line up on Hartland there were 3 Ring Ouzel feeding in hawthorn along with newly arrived Fieldfare, Redwing, Song Thrush and Blackbird. 

The strong southerly wind that built up from the early hours looked good for a Branksome sea-watch, and after a combined effort from a handful of people there was a good four hours coverage spent watching from the beach huts. Over this time period a nice range of species were recorded in reasonable numbers, baring in mind this site is most definitely not a Dorset premier sea-watching spot, but can be quite productive in the right conditions. Totals included 4 Pomarine Skua, 1 Arctic Skua, 5 Little Gull, 3 Great Northern Diver, 1 Shearwater sp (likely Balearic), 7 Red-breasted Merganser, 18 Brent Geese, 11 Common Scoter, 5 Dunlin, 5 Shelduck, 2 Razorbill, 5 Auk sp, 11 Gannet, large numbers of Kittiwake, 2 Oystercatcher and 2 Curlew.  Out on Baiter there were 2 Sandwich Tern and 65 Brent Geese. At Arne, the Firecrest were active in the car park with at least 2 present, along with a Marsh Tit (rare here now) and a Brambling. Out in Studland Bay just 1 Common Scoter, 2 Black-necked Grebe, 4 Great Crested Grebe, 6 Med Gulls, and a few Brent Geese. Out in Brands Bay 1 Great White Egret, 5 Goldeneye, 2 Red-breasted Merganser, 2 Sandwich Tern, a late Swallow, 3 Pintail, 10 Black-necked Grebe and 13 Great Crested Grebe.

Not much to report on today other than having recently changed the design of our Barn Owl box and put in a new camera one of our Barn Owls has suddenly re-appeared after a 3-month absence. Hopefully this is the beginning of a re-colonisation of the box and its mate will soon follow after.

http://www.birdsofpooleharbour.co.uk/barn-owl-webcam

Other than that, 3 Spotted Redshank, 4 Green Sandpiper, 2 Greenshank and 2 Marsh Harrier at Lytchett Bay were the only other birds of note. 

Yesterday morning saw 21500 Wood Pigeon move across the harbour but a sudden blanket of cloud soon put a stop to the spectacle. Elsewhere in the country Portskewett, Gwent  saw 200,000 move yesterday. The Great White Egret was again in Brands Bay, 3 Black-necked Grebe were off Middle Beach and 10+ Chiffchaff were along the woodland trail. Shipstal saw 46 Spoonbill and there were 2 Firecrest in the scrub next to the toilets at Arne. A small piece of Thrush movement occurred at Lytchett Bay with 43 Fieldfare and 38 Redwing, with 2 Spoonbill in the bay and a Jack Snipe over. A quick sea-watch took place off Branksome Chine after news arrived that Portland was seeing good numbers of Pomarine Skua off the bill. The sea-watch from Branksome produced 1 Pomarine Skua, 1 Arctic Skua, 7 Little Gull, 2 Common Scoter, 9 Gannet, 14 Wigeon, 15+ Kittiwake and 1 Razorbill. A school bird boat today saw an increase in Red-breasted Mergansers appearing, but still not much else in the way of Divers or Goldeneye, lets hope the full moon tomorrow night sees an arrival of birds.  

This morning looked like a possible Wood Pigeon morning but after ‘only’ 4000 birds having passed over the harbour the movement petered out very quickly. When you look at the Netherlands and Belgium for comparison today who counted 3 million on the move south you can see why our 4000 was slightly underwhelming. From the same watch point, 2 Skylark, 4 Great Spotted Woodpecker, 2 Fieldfare, 11 Redwing and a Firecrest. A stunning male Hen Harrier arrived yesterday and is now roosting with the two ringtails along with 6 Marsh Harrier still nearby. The Hen Harrier are still commuting between Middlebere, Swineham and now Lytchett Bay. There was also a Merlin and a Peregrine out over the Wareham Channel. 3 adult type passed North Haven yesterday morning but distantly and in the gloom meant an ID couldn’t be clinched, but they were either Arctic or Pomarine. The Great White Egret was again out in Brands Bay and Red-breasted Merganser numbers continue to increase. There were 12 Black-necked Grebe off Middle Beach and 6 Sanderling in Shell Bay. 

Today was the Poole Harbour WeBS count so the harbour saw some nice coverage for most of the day. Starting with the Studland area where the Great White Egret appeared in Brands Bay again and a Yellow-browed Warbler was still in Knoll Beach car park. Out in Studland Bay there were 17 Black-necked Grebe. Elsewhere there was Black Redstart x 1 at Arne Farm and another at Knoll Beach, Firecrest x 4 in the Arne car park,
Hen Harrier x 1 on Arne Moors,
Marsh Harrier x 4 in the Wareham Channel including the adult male, 
Peregrine x 1 on Arne Moors,
Spoonbill x 28 at Shipstal Point,
Knot x 7 Arne Bay (rare here), Red-breasted Merganser x 20 off Long Island,
Goldeneye x 9 in Central Harbour, Woodcock x 2 Grip Heath, Arne. A Brambling was on Brownsea Island mid-afternoon. There was also 2 Firecrest at the Swineham entrance road. The first Pochard of the autumn was at Hatch Pond, and Baiter saw its first Brent Geese of the autumn. There seemed to be good numbers of the ‘usuals’ with at least 400 Avocet at the mouth of Middlebere/Wytch Lake, plus big numbers of Curlew, Oystercatcher, Redshank, Black-tailed Godwit and wildfowl species. 

Apologise for the site going down last night, especially with a decent round up of birds to include. The harbour seemed to churn up goody after goody yesterday starting with 2 Yellow-browed Warbler in the corner of Knoll Beach car park, accompanying 3 Firecrest, 3 Chiffchaff, 3 Lesser Redpoll and a fly over Brambling. Out in Studland Bay 5 Common Scoter were present, also 11 Black-necked Grebe and a handful of Great Crested Grebe. Wood Pigeon numbers aren’t quite taking off yet, with a max count of only 2240 so far from central Poole. For me, highlight of yesterday was a family party of 4 Whooper Swan that dropped into Middlebere for the afternoon, 1 adult and 3 juveniles. On Brownsea 42 Spoonbill were still present. At Arne Farm 2 Black Redstart were feeding on the farm buildings, with another in Market Street, Poole. There are currently 6 Marsh Harrier in the normal roost, with 2 Hen Harrier, which continue to commute between Middlebere, Hartland and Swineham most days.

Today, an early morning visit to Middlebere to see if the Whoopers had over-stayed resulted in negative swan news but a beautiful sunrise and great birds still made it worth while as 32 Spoonbill fed and a ringtail Hen Harrier hunted roosting starlings with 200 Avocet resting up on the tide line. Redwings were passing overhead on Coombe and a Merlin dashed across the heath. Further down the road towards Soldiers Road the ‘6 thrush challenge’ was completed as a Ring Ouzel was in a hawthorn bush, the first Fieldfares passed overhead, a Mistle Thrush sat on wires and Blackbird and Song Thrush bustled through the bushes. A Black Redstart was at Lytchett Bay, and a Rock Pipit was caught during a ringing session bearing a Belgium ring. Also at Lytchett Bay 1 Firecrest, 15 Greenshank, 5 Spotted Redshank and a Hen Harrier. 

I mentioned yesterday that by learning the calls of Yellow-browed Warbler it will certainly increase your chance of finding one, well that’s exactly what happened this morning only I didn’t find just one, I found two. They were tucked up in the corner of the Knoll Beach car park Studland, at the boat park end, and one of them was really vocal. Typically by the time I had run back to my car to get my recording gear and back to the bird it had quieted down, however it still called infrequently enough for me to get some semi-decent recordings to highlight what you should listen out for.

To me the call is a high-pitched, sweet sounding whistle for attention, that has a clear rising inflection at the very start of the call. The rise isn’t always easy to hear but is very clear on the sonagrams. 

Yellow-browed Warbler (bird 1) – Knoll Beach, Studland 31/10/14

Yellow-browed Warbler (bird 2) – Knoll Beach, Studland 31/10/14