Well, at least we had one day of sun and slight spring warmth, but today it was back to rain. However, we’ve been keeping an eye on the national birding news over the weekend and it’s great to see a whole suit of early spring migrants have already arrived! Last week the first Northern Wheatear was found in Avon, a Little Ringed Plover was in Suffolk yesterday, multiple Sand Martin have been recorded across the country and even a few Swallows have been seen. These are early, but it’s not unusual if the correct weather systems are in place for this group of species to arrive in late February, with the weekends (and certainly todays) weather system blowing in all the way from southern Europe, which has deposited these early arrivals. The weather patterns over the next couple of weeks seem a bit all over the place, so whether we see more early arrivals is a bit unsure, but we know many people will be keeping an eye out.

Yesterday afternoon a juvenile Glaucous Gull was reported off the Brownsea south shore, in-between Brownsea and Furzey Island. This is the best time for scarce gulls to arrive into the harbour with Glaucous, Iceland and Caspian all found in Poole Harbour during late Feb and during March. A Black-throated Diver was off Parkstone Yacht Club, a Spotted Redshank was in Holes Bay and the Barnacle Goose was seen at Swineham GP again. The White-tailed Eagle pair were over Middlebere this morning before seen heading towards Corfe area. The Hawfinch was still in St Marys Church yard, Lytchett Matravers.

Pintail – Holes Bay NW

A glorious Spring day in the harbour with for the sunshine providing some warmth for the first time in a long time. There was lots of activity as a result with plenty of bird song and movement. At least 1 Hawfinch was still present just outside of area at St Mary’s Church Lytchett Matravers and one of the juvenile White-tailed Eagles tracked west over this area too this morning. In Lytchett Bay there was 1 Spotted Redshank, 4 Greenshank and 1 Red Kite. 1 Spotted Redshank was also in Holes Bay.

4 Spoonbill were in the Middlebere Channel but numbers do seem to be dropping in the harbour as spring passage gets going. 24 Spoonbill arrived back at Holkham in north Norfolk yesterday, to get ready for breeding, so there has clearly been a push out of wintering sites in the last couple of days. From our boat this afternoon the local pair of White-tailed Eagles were back on their usual spot of Shag Looe in the Wareham Channel. The Barnacle Goose was still at Swineham, swapping between the gravel pit and Arne Moors. 2 Marsh Harrier were also hunting Teal here. More and more Mediterranean Gulls are moving around and arriving back into the Wareham Channel and 1 male Goldeneye was also here. 2 female-type Common Scoter were in Central Harbour and 5+ Great Northern Diver were spread throughout the harbour including one that flew out the harbour entrance. Off Jerry’s Point there were 6 Black-necked Grebes, 4 Slavonian Grebe, 1 male Common Scoter and 1 Long-tailed Duck.

Goshawk – RSPB Arne – Alison Copland

White-tailed Eagle – Wareham Channel BoPH Winter Safari Cruise – Sue Ketteridge

Mediterranean Gull in breeding plumage – Wareham Channel from BoPH Cruise – Sue Ketteridge

A pretty drizzly difficult day today making birding tricky. We weren’t put off for our Young Birders visit to Brownsea Island for the new Lookout Hide’s opening. Thanks to Dorset Wildlife Trust for inviting us. Lots of birds sheltering on the lagoon including c200 Avocet, 3 Greenshank, 3 Sanderling, 2 Ringed Plover, 20+ Turnstone, 30+ Grey Plover, 76 Bar-tailed Godwit. On the journey to and from the island there were 4 Great Northern Diver on the north shore of Brownsea and 1 Black-throated Diver still off Salterns Marina, although viewing was difficult so the 4 are probably still around nearby. Off Jerry’s Point the male Common Scoter was still present along with 2 Black-necked Grebe and 1 Great Northern Diver. 5 Spoonbill were at Shipstal, Arne and 3 White-tailed Eagles were in the Wareham Channel.

A very grey day from the Avocet Hide on Brownsea

Today wasn’t as cold as the last few days, and the sun even tried to pop out a few times. There are still loads of great birds across the harbour and our Winter Safari this morning managed to catch up with quite a few. The 5 Black-throated Diver off Evening Hill/Salterns Marina were still feeding in a tight flock just before midday, the Long-tailed Duck was with 4 Red-breasted Merganser off Jerry’s Point and an adult male Common Scoter was also new in off Jerry’s Point with 4 Black-necked Grebe there too and 5 more in central harbour. There were 3 Spoonbill in the Wareham Channel and 3 Ruff were flying around with Lapwing over Keysworth. A Goshawk briefly lifted out of a confier block on Arne to attack a Raven, but quickly disappeared again. Great Northern Diver numbers seem to have dropped off with only 3 logged today (rare for Black-throated to out-number Great Northerns). Wader numbers seemed slightly lower with c400 Avocet spread between the Wareham Channel and Brownsea and only about c50 Bar-tailed Godwit also on Brownsea. A lone Common Guillemot was off the Brownsea Quay and 6 Cattle Egret were on Wareham Common. Plus, as we predicted yesterday, this morning saw the first Sand Martin of the year, in Charmouth, West Dorset. Thats both Wheatear and Sand Martin now logged this year, meaning spring migration is truly underway!

Common Guillemot – Brownsea Quay – From Winter Safari this AM

There was still a bitterly cold easterly wind whipping across the harbour today, but on a few occasions the sun did attempt to come out. Although White-tailed Eagles already seem to be part of the Poole Harbour furniture these days, it’s always an amazing moment when one gets clocked flying over Poole Town Centre, which is what happened this afternoon when a juvenile was seen flying in over Poole and then Baiter Park, before heading towards the Wareham Channel. A Jack Snipe was flushed at Lytchett Bay this morning, at least 3 Black-throated Diver were still off Baiter/Evening Hill and up to 5 Spoonbill were in Middlebere. The Lytchett Matravers, St Mary’s Church Hawfinch seems to be quite flighty and not really hanging around that long, often opting to sit in the tops of surrounding trees. Off Jerry’s Point only a single Slavonian Grebe and Great Northern Diver could be found but it wasn’t exactly the best conditions. A few early Reed Bunting are making their way back on territory with the main bulk of the males ‘winter abrasion’ having now been completed, revealing their black hoods, with just a few brown flecks left on the heads.

Great Northern Diver – Jerry’s Point 

Male Reed Bunting – Swineham 

With the wind easing off today it made for easier birding, so much so that the first rarity of the year was found with an adult Bonaparte’s Gull found feeding off Middle Beach, Studland this morning. Sadly it didn’t stick around, however there’s a good chance it will re-appear somewhere and could even possibly the same individual that was in the harbour this time last year and spent most of the spring around the Wareham Common/Swineham area. It was searched for during the rest of the day but couldn’t be re-found, although consequently whilst searching other birds were found including 2 Black-throated Diver off Banks Road, Sandbanks, 1 Long-tailed Duck, 4 Slavonian Grebe, 12 Great Northern Diver and 2-3 Sandwich Tern around the Jerry’s Point and Studland Peninsular. There were also 3 Black-necked Grebe and 2 Common Scoter out in Studland Bay. There was a male Hen Harrier seen in Middlebere plus 2 Spotted Redshank, the adult male Hawfinch was still in the Lytchett Matravers church yard at St Mary’s Church and 7 Cattle Egret were in fields near the Purbeck school roundabout. This evening another record count of Magpie were logged at Hatch Pond with 245 counted going into roost around 17:00.

Greenshank – Brands Bay

Slavonian Grebe – Jerry’s Point

Firecrest – Middlebere

There was love in the air this morning, despite the icy, icy cold easterly wind when White-tailed Eagle pair G4466 (female) and G463 (male) began a territorial valentines courtship flight in the harbour before tracking south to Durlston, before eventually soaring in tandem over Swyre Head. This then attracted the attention of 2 juvenile White-tailed Eagles that have also been spending time along the Purbeck coast, and at around 8am all four were circling together, interacting, calling to one another with occasional talon grappling. This provided quite the spectacle for some of our team who were out monitoring early this morning when all four were circling right above our heads. We attempted to get some video footage, but the cold easterly wind made it difficult, but we did manage to get some photos too. This morning the/a Velvet Scoter flew into the harbour at around 7am, which is presumed to be to be the one that was in the harbour on Saturday last week. There were also 3 Kittiwake in and around the harbour entrance along with 3 Great Northern Diver. Despite the chop on the water, the Long-tailed Duck was bobbing up and down in-between Redhorn and Jerry’ Point with 2 Slavonian Grebe off there still. The Siberian Chiffchaff was still at Norden Sewage Works plus a Lesser Redpoll was still in the Alders.

(Cold) wobbly footage of four White-tailed Eagles over Swyre Head this morning

Four White-tailed Eagles over Swyre Head, Purbeck

Tim Mackrill from the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation monitoring the eagles with us this AM

Male White-tailed Eagle G463 flying past our team at Swyre Head