Having just returned from holiday I was happy to hear that the Great White Egret was seen on a couple of occasions proving its still in the area after a short absence. Sighting from Middlebere and Holmebridge also highlights how far and wide this bird is traveling to feed…unless there is more than one of course? Another highlight came from Lytchett Bay where after a twenty-year absence another Garganey showed up, this time a female making that two in two weeks! Also at Lytchett Bay a strange June record of a drake Pintail, the autumns first Green Sandpiper, also 25 Redshank, 28 Lapwing, 11 Teal and 2 Shoveler. A Lesser Spotted Woodpecker was photographed at Holton Lee, which is a great Poole Harbour record. 

Last night we ringed the Swineham Barn Owls of which there are four. You can view them in their box HERE, which now has new night vision and audio. From what we could see all four were likely females so lets hope one gets found again in the future to confirm our thoughts. As we were ringing a Nightjar, 2 Cuckoo and a Hobby flew past. We must thank Lake Views B&B again for their cooperation in allowing us to erect our Barn Owl box up in one of their barns, this has been a hugely successful project. There’s been little else from around the harbour other than plenty of churring Nightjar on a night jaunt last night. Peregrine Falcons are have been regular occurrence this summer with two birds seen yesterday, one over Poole town centre and another carrying a prey item over Wareham showing there could be numerous breeding birds locally. At Lytchett Bay there were 164 Black-tailed Godwit, 1 Dunlin, 2 Lapwing and 6 early returning Teal.

Last night we (Stour Ringing Group) ringed the Barn Owl chicks at Swineham, which I will write about later. However, about an hour after we had finished I sat in the dark with my recording gear, sound recording the adults coming back and forth with food. In this recording you can initially hear standard begging calls that occur once every second or so, and then as you can see on the sonagram at 13 seconds an adult enters the box, the squabbling begins and the begging calls speed right up. 

Don’t forget to book on to one of the up and coming ‘Birds of Poole Harbour’ Big Nightjar Weekends in partnership with Arne RSPB reserve. To view dates and booking detailed CLICK HERE

The summer doldrums are starting to kick in with many birds busy feeding or incubating young and migration coming to an almost complete stop. Still, we’re lucky here in Dorset to have some of the most unique breeding birds in the country so its still always a pleasure to get out a watch some of our ‘familiar locals’. At Holton Lee a feeding group of 3 Woodlark could show successful breeding at the site. Also there singing Tree Pipit, 3 Dartford Warbler, 1 Hobby, juv Stonechat, 2 Linnet and the first mix-Tit flock of the season with a combined total of 20 Long-tailed, Blue and Great Tit. At Lytchett Bay 2 passage Dunlin were on the private wet fields, also the Redshank chicks continue to grow with at least 8 adults present…more young to come? Juv Grey Heron and 200 Black-tailed Godwit were also at Lytchett Bay. Local Harrier watcher Peter Hadrill has confirmed that both Marsh Harrier nests have hatched young meaning that the male who is ‘servicing’ both females is certainly going to be a busy boy over the next few weeks. It seems Redshank are also breeding up on Hartland as two birds were seen, one perching on telephone pole, and the other balancing on the wire! A Red Kite also drifted over Hartland yesterday and 3 Hobby were present. 2 Tree Pipit were singing up on Slepe Heath and 3 Willow Warbler are still holding territory along Soldiers Road. 

Having spoken to the gentleman who photographed the Short-toed Eagle at Arne on Saturday morning, it seems the time on his camera was out of sync by 1 hour and the photo was actually taken at 10:10am and not 09:10am as originally thought. This makes perfect sense now, as the last photo my group took of the bird upon the discovery was 9:59am proving the bird left Morden Bog and flew straight to Arne where it may have possibly stayed to feed for the morning before returning to Morden Bog later that day.  

Well it looks like there has been an interesting development in the Short-toed Eagle saga, with the revelation that the bird had been photographed flying over Arne about twenty minutes before its discovery at Morden Bog. A visitor to Arne on Saturday morning unassumingly photographed a large bird of prey gracefully drifting over Coombe Heath, Arne and didn’t think much of it. It wasn’t until they saw the news story of the eagles discovery that they decided to contact Birdguides and send them the photos, which they did this morning. The photos look good and the timings seem right so it looks as if we’ll be able to add Short-toed Eagle to the Poole Harbour list, which is fantastic. Another interesting development is that the presumed Grey-headed Wagtail up on Ballard on the same day as the eagle is looking like it could well be the suspected species meaning it would be a first for Poole Harbour and only the 7^th for Dorset. These Yellow Wagtail sub-species can be really tricky to identify, but local birder Steve Smith does a great job in analysing his discovery on his blog Birding Poole Harbour and Beyond. Finally, Lytchet Bay this morning saw a drake Garganey land on the private wet fields to the north which may not sound that incredible, however it’s the first to occur at the site in exactly 20 years highlighting the fact that if you create the correct habitat then the birds will come!

Thankfully, THANKFULLY the Short-toed Eagle decided to sleep tight at Morden Bog on Saturday night and as daylight broke and the Eagle opened its eyes it was welcomed by the sight of some 500 birders looking back at it. Un-phased it sat tight from first light (04:30am) to around 10am where upon it decided there was enough warmth and a decent thermal to lift it up, up and away never to be seen again…yet! Amongst the excitement of the Eagle, there was some other news. Steve Smith found a probable female Grey-headed Wagtail up on Old Harry, where there was also 2 Eider Duckoff shore. Now for some more Eagle photos 😉

I really don’t know where to start other than wow! Just when you think things can’t get any better a MEGA appears in a tree right next to the group you’re taking out for a field trip. On todays ‘Birds of Poole Harbour’ guided walk at Morden Bog, something so incredible happened that I still can’t believe it actually happened. Our group had already been treated to great views of Dartford Warbler, Woodlark, Tree Pipit, Cuckoo, Stonechat along with flyover Crossbill, Siskin and lots of Mistle Thrush when a member of the group (Alan King) spotted a bird of prey sat in a tree further on the other side of the heath. Initially the views weren’t great but the bird was pale, chunky, had a pale eye and seemed Buzzard like. Having experienced and been fooled by many, many pale Buzzards, of which Dorset has plenty I instantly ID’d it an extremely pale morph Buzzard. As we got closer it soon started to become clear that this wasn’t a Common Buzzard, so what was it? A Honey Buzzard was my next logical thought but the head was way too small and tail too short. Then a moment of total and utter madness occurred when the thought of Short-toed Eagle popped into my head, surely not? We opened the Collins Filed Guide and there it was, our bird, the same bird that had been sat in the tree. Almost wanting to faint, we gathered as many photos as we could to help confirm the ID and started breaking the news. What an absolutely AMAZING bird, made even more special by the fact it then returned later in the day for many many more birders to enjoy

.  Short-toed Eagle – Morden Bog – Clive Hargrave

Unsurprisingly the Great White Egret was seen, but yet again by only one observer. I’m thinking of entering this bird into the Guinness book of world records as the world’s most elusive bird. No matter how hard I try it seems impossible to catch just even a glimpse of this bird…hey ho, I’ll persevere. From Soldiers Road there was 1 Hobby, 1 Cuckoo, 1 Woodlark, 2 Dartford Warbler and lots of Swift. In the Frome Valley a pair of Lesser Whitethroat found feeding young and there were a minimum of 10 Gadwall. Up on Hartland Moor another Lesser Whitethroat was heard singing also 1 Garden Warbler, 1 Cuckoo, 1 Peregrine, 4 Raven and 8 Mistle Thrush. On Slepe Heath 1 Tree Pipit singing was new for the site and the first for that side of the harbour in a long while. At Lytchett Bay a fist summer Little Gull was still around and a migrant pair of Avocet dropped in briefly, also 120+ Black-tailed Godwit, 6 Redshank, 1 Dunlin and an incredible 32 Gadwall. At Swineham there were 2 Little Gull, 1 Whimbrel and 2 Med Gull. On Brownsea the Yellow-legged Gulls have hatched their chick continuing the run of being Britain’s rarest breeding bird with this pair being the only ones in the country.