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

Its well worth continuing to check tit flocks at the moment as the Yellow-browed Warbler wave continues with one arriving on Brownsea today, another at Studland yesterday and at-least another five or six elsewhere in the county. I still haven’t managed to sound record one yet, but learning their call is one of the best ways to track them down. Firecrest are also very prominent at the moment with a minimum of 13 reported yesterday with 3 at Hatch Pond, 9 in and around the Studland Peninsular and 1 at Lytchett Bay. A Brambling was feeding near Middle Beach, Studland. At Holes Bay there were 320+ Black-tailed Godwit, 600+ Wigeon, 150+ Redshank and 2 Stonechat. A Ring Ouzel was at Middlebere briefly. A flock of 40 Spoonbill were on Brownsea with the usual good numbers of Avocet, Black-tailed Godwit, Greenshank, Spotted Redshank and Redshank. Apparently, big numbers of thrushes entered the UK this AM further north, meaning we could potentially see the first big arrivals of Fieldfare tomorrow morning and over the coming days with more Redwing too. 

News from yesterday where a Yellow-browed Warbler was at Lytchett Bay in the scrub around the Waterworks on Slough Lane. Today a Grey Phalarope was found near the harbour mouth sat on the water, which then upped and left intermittently as it would take off and then land again every 50m or so which it repeated several times before eventually being lost to view. Also a Black-necked Grebe at South Haven with another 18 off Middle Beach along with 4 Common Scoter and a Slavonian Grebe. There was a Firecrest at Sea View point in Parkstone whilst a Wood Pigeon vigil took place, however a meagre 450 were noted. Potentially the big main push of Wood Pigeon will occur next week.

There was a bit more coverage from around the harbour today resulting in some nice finds. Starting off at South Haven where a dark phase Arctic Skua was sat on the water before heading off south with both Ring Ouzel and Brambling overhead. A Yellow-browed Warbler was in the woodland above South Beach with a mixed tit flock and out off Middle Beach the first Slavonian Grebe of the winter was found along with 12 Common Scoter and 9 Black-necked Grebe.  A Lesser-spotted Woodpecker was seen at Upton CP in the piece of woodland next to where the old bird hide used to be. Marsh Harriers were seen at both Swineham and Middlebere with 3 and 2 respectively. Finally there was an un-confirmed report of a Red-breasted Flycatcher at Arne yesterday afternoon.

Despite some decent Saturday weather not many sightings came my way unfortunately. I guess the best news is that there is now a third Hen Harrier in the harbour this time an adult female which means it now joins the younger female and male as they dash around the Wareham Channel and Hartland Moor. There are also currently 8 different Marsh Harrier in the harbour. Today we attended the Arne Forage Festival, which was really well received. Our ringing demo that we hosted with the Stour Ringing Group was also a big hit with an incredible 95 birds ringed including 5 Great Spotted Woodpecker, 13 Chaffinch, 8 Greenfinch plus numerous Blue and Great Tit, Goldfinch and a Blackcap. Before the event I arrived at Arne around 6am to do some sound recording and was treated to several Tawny Owls all calling, along with a handful of Redwing a nice Bullfinch flock of around 10 birds flying over. At dawn there were also plenty of Robins calling and singing and this is a species I’m going to be taking a deeper look at regarding its vocal arrangements over the coming months so decided to make a recording of a typical song. Below is the recording I made plus six very different looking sonograms. Amazingly all these sonograms are from the same bird and from the same 56 second recording, highlighting how varied their repertoires are.

Was out on a school bird boat yesterday morning and didn’t fail to impress (as usual). The Spoonbill flock was split between Brownsea and Arne. The lagoon on Brownsea was teaming with Avocet, along with Black-tailed Godwit, Oystercatcher, Redshank, Teal, Wigeon the odd Greenshank, Turnstone and Spotted Redshank. A Great White Egret was off the Ower shoreline and a handful of Great Crested Grebe were in Brands Bay. This morning a Firecrest was along the lane leading down to the waterworks at Lytchett Bay. 

Well the wind blew, blew again and then blew some more until finally by around 9pm last night it had run out of puff! The dreams of Sabine’s Gulls and Little Auks undoubtedly didn’t come to fruition but it was still exciting nonetheless. A sea-watch from Poole Quay (never usually a focus area during strong wind) came up trumps with 1 Arctic Tern, 1 Common Tern, 8 Sandwich Tern, 1 Great Northern Diver, 18 Ringed Plover, 230 Dunlin, 1 Peregrine, 1 Kingfisher, and a handful of Pied Wagtails heading west. Off Shipsatl Point this morning an Arctic Tern (probably the same as yesterdays bird) was hawking over a feeding raft of around 200 Cormorant in central harbour, along side several Red-breasted Merganser and Great Crested Grebe. Also on Shipstal 3 Dartford Warbler and a large Long-tailed Tit flock. The whole flock of 49 Spoonbill were on Brownsea this morning which was good news as Chris Packham and the AutumnWatch team were over there filming for the coming series of  AutumnWatch which starts next week. At South Haven a Golden Plover went over and 2 Firecrest were grounded.

This Saturday also sees the Arne Forage Festival takes place for its 5^th Year. Birds of Poole Harbour will have a marquee there telling people about our work, plus we’ll be hosting a ringing demo with the Stour Ringing Group from 11am to 2pm. Come and say hello!

I’ve been trying to record the Ringed Plover flock down on Baiter for a few weeks now, but boats, road works and very loud Herring Gulls have prevented me from doing so so far. However I managed to nip down there on my lunch break today with the falling tide and managed to locate a small flock of 8 birds feeding with 5 Dunlin. Typically they were mostly silent, but as they flew I managed to get a flight call type from 2-3 of the Plover and a from one of the Dunlin highlighting the rise in pitch of the Plover call…‘rising inflection’

Is this the calm before the storm? Strong winds are predicted for tomorrow, coming in off the Atlantic and thoughts of all sorts of goodies are being conjured up in my mind…Sabine’s Gull, Grey Phalarope, Little Auk, Leach’s Storm Petrel…hmmmmm, and now back to reality. Highlights from the last few days included another Ring Ouzel, this time at Arne Farm. One of the Great White Egrets was again out in front of the Brands Bay hide along with a Marsh Harrier, 11 Red-breasted Merganser, 28 Great Crested Grebe and a Peregrine. Off Middle Beach, Studland 2 Black-necked Grebe, 1 Razorbill and 10 Med Gulls were present. The whole Poole Harbour Spoonbill flock was on Brownsea which consisted of 49 birds…where is number 50? A Firecrest was in North Bestwall Wood, near Swineham. Around the Hartland/Middlebere area there were 3 Marsh Harrier, 1 ringtail Hen Harrier and an adult male, 1 Merlin, 1 Yellow-legged Gull, 6 Greenshank also plenty of Dartford Warbler and Stonechat. At Holton Lee a sub-adult male Marsh Harrier and adult female Hen Harrier were present along with 18 Bearded Tit and 2 Swallow.