The on off rain over the bank holiday weekend didn’t make it easy to get out and cover much of the harbour, but still plenty on offer to keep hearts and minds at bay. The 3 Black-winged Stilts remained for a couple of days before departing on Sunday. The Great White Egret was spotted today flying over Wareham Quay heading up the Frome Valley. There was confirmed breeding success of some of the harbour’s scarcest species as Lapwing, Redshank and Yellow-legged Gull chicks were all noted. At Lytchett Bay the flock of 160 strong Black-tailed Godwit remain faithful to one muddy area of the site as a Little Gull and single Turnstone joined them. On Brownsea there was a colour-ringed Spoonbill, 2 drake Shoveler, 1 poor Avocet with a broken leg, 40 Black-tailed Godwit, 2 Dunlin and good numbers of Sandwich and Common Tern on the nesting islands. At Swineham a first summer Little Gull was over the gravel pits and the male Marsh Harrier was out feeding, also plenty of Swift about too and 3 healthy looking Great Crested Grebe chicks. Finally a Garden Warbler was heard singing up in the Corfe River Meadows.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

There’s been a nice SSE wind blowing, looking like it has the potential to deliver something a bit different. Although no concentrated efforts were made to sea watch Poole Bay a Manx Shearwater that passed mid afternoon yesterday highlighted the opportunity for sea birds to be picked up off the Poole Harbour shorelines. Elsewhere a Common Sandpiper, 120+ Black-tailed Godwit, 1 Greenshank, 4 Redshank 3 Lapwing and 2 Common Tern were at Lytchett Bay. At Swineham 1 Little Gull was on the flooded Pool, 1 Little Ringed Plover on the ‘Stilt Pools’, 100+ Swift, 4 Cetti’s Warbler and a strange record of a summer plumaged Turnstone in a flooded field. Up on Hartland last night only a couple of Nightjar were churring, also 2 Cuckoo. Finally, there was a strange record of a male and female Goldeneye courting off Shipstal, Arne this afternoon. Although going by today’s weather I wouldn’t blame the Goldeneye for still thinking its winter!

It was good see us get plugged on BBC South Today this evening with a lovely full screen shot of our website on the program. Hopefully the website will cope with the billions of people rushing to view the Brownsea webcam! Back to the sightings, there was a stunning but brief encounter of 3 Black-winged Stilts on private land in the harbour. It’s amazing to think that before this year the last record was on one in 1961 and now there has been 5 in less than two months! There was a sighting of Hobby on Upton heath, along with plenty of Dartford Warbler a Cuckoo, Tawny Owl and churring Nightjar. At Swineham two Marsh Harrier were active, 3-4 Bearded Tit, 2 Cuckoo and a Little Gull were present. At Lytchett Bay 100+ Black-tailed Godwit, 3-4 Redshank, 1 Whimbrel and 1 Cuckoo. At Middlebere 2 sleeping Spoonbill, 1 Marsh Harrier, 3 Hobby and 1 Yellow-legged Gull. Pilots Point, Studland saw 51 Sanderling, which is a great spring count. On Hartland Moor no less than 8 Nightjar were extremely active chasing one another and calling, a Hobby and 2 Cuckoo were also present. 

The recording below is of a male Nightjar on Hartland Moor last night. On heathland all over Dorset Nightjar are becoming really active as they start to defend their territories and try to attract a mate. This bird was one of 8 vigorously flying about calling and churring. At the end of the recording you’ll hear the strange bubbling sound and numerous wing claps that the bird makes as it leaves its churring post, a sound seldom heard unless close to the bird. The sonagram shows the moment the Nightjar stops churring and starts wing clapping, with the sharp spike in the graph depicting each wing clap.

A few areas saw some coverage today, starting with Swineham where an early watch to see if the Great White Egret emerged from the Arne heronry proved fruitless in one aspect, however compensation for the Egret no show came in the shape of 6 Spoonbill, 1 Little Gull, 2 Bearded Tit, 5 Common Tern, 4 Redshank, 1 Lapwing, 2 Marsh Harrier, Great Crested Grebe with chicks, 2 Little Grebe and a Cuckoo. A Lytchett Bay 124 Black-tailed Godwit, 2 Redshank, 1 Peregrine, 1 Cuckoo, 3 Lapwing, 3 Gadwall and a Whimbrel. On Brownsea 3 Nightjar were active near the Lake Hide last night and on the lagoon today 2 summer plumage Knot, 200+ Black-tailed Godwit, 4 Grey Plover, 3 Dunlin, 1 Brent Goose, 1 Avocet and 1 Spoonbill.

Finally, what ever your views are on the Navitus Bay Wind Farm Development, you can have your say for the very last time by registering as an ‘Interested Party’ HERE where your view and opinion will be taken into account by the Planning Inspectorate later in the year. Please take the time to voice your opinions, it only takes 5 minutes to fill out the form.

The harbour was somewhat under-watched yesterday and today despite the promising conditions although the re-appearance of the Great White Egret in the Frome Valley almost confirms that it’s (currently) over-summering in the harbour. Although being super elusive it was witnessed flying towards Arne at 20:25 last night as it headed into roost. Its probably doing this every evening so there’s a chance if you watch from Swineham or elsewhere with a good view of the Wareham Channel that you’ll pick it up flying down the channel. At Swineham there were 2 first summer Little Gulls, 1 Cuckoo, 11 Cetti’s Warbler, 1 Marsh Harrier, 4 Sedge Warbler and many Reed Warbler. On Brownsea the Nightjars provided a great view sat on the post in front of the Lake Hide. Also on the lagoon 1 Brent Goose, 3 Avocet, 5 Turnstone, 1 Dunlin, 3 Bar-tailed godwit, 257 Black-tailed Godwit and 2 Wheatear. The male Marsh Harrier continues to feed both females quite happily suggesting everything is going smoothly with both nests at the moment. At Lytchett Bay there was 1 (possibly 2) Spotted Flycatcher, 140+ Black-tailed Godwit, including 2 colour ringed birds, 3 Lapwing and 1 Whimbrel.

The weather over the last 48 hours seemed favorable for some new arrivals, perhaps something a bit different? South easterlies in mid May are always a good sign and today proved that theory correct. May is a great time for passage waders making their way north so its well worth checking muddy pools and scrapes for a stop over bird looking for a quick feed. At Lytchett Bay this week, the private fields to the north had already recorded 2 Knot, numerous Black-tailed Godwit, Whimbrel and Redshank so it looked as if some other waders were on the cards. Well yesterday 2 Ringed Plover arrived and this morning a Wood Sandpiper was discovered and then totally out of the blue whilst watching the latter Poole Harbours 4^thTemminck’s Stint was found. Also present was 1 Greenshank, 2 Lapwing and 128 Black-tailed Godwit. At Swineham today 1 Cuckoo, 1 Greenshank, 17 Cetti’s Warbler, 8 Sedge Warbler, 21 Reed Warbler, 1 Marsh Harrier, 2 Swift and 2 Bearded Tit. A Red Kite and Peregrine drifted over Stoborough. 

In the recording below you can hear three main species, Woodlark, Meadow Pipit and Great Spotted Woodpecker. The Woodpecker call is the short sharp ‘yip’ that appears on the sonagram as the singular, thick vertical line, reaching around 5kHz. The Meadow Pipit is the continuous ascending call that levels at 7kHz all the way through the recording, which is clear to see on the sonagram. You can also see that the pipit is evenly producing roughly 4 notes per second. Finally, the Woodlark song is the mournful, lower pitched descending sound that can be seen in the sonagram starting slowly at first but gaining pace towards the end of its song. This was recorded up on Slepe Heath (near Arne) this morning, 16/05/14.

The large high-pressure system and open blue skies over Dorset this morning did little to help bring down any new arrivals. That said, what I assume is the same super elusive Great White Egret was seen flying up the Frome Valley again, this time over Ridge, but yet again was impossible to relocate anywhere in the surrounding area. This could potentially be the same bird that over-wintered in the harbour this year, and it seems to be choosing to roost somewhere on Arne at night and feeding in the Frome Valley during the day. At East Holme a female Whinchat was a minor consolation during the Egret relocation efforts, also a Cuckoo near the Wareham bypass. At Lytchett Bay Black-tailed Godwit numbers rose to 161 and 2 Redshank were also present. 

As well as the drumming I uploaded earlier the same Common Snipe was also making this sound a few seconds before taking off to display…