If you’ve never been on one of the FREE Discover Arne Heathland Rambles that occur pretty much every Wednesday throughout the year then I would highly reccomend it. You’ll be led by an expert RSPB volunteer around some of the well known and less well know parts of the reserve in search of the wealth of wildlife that occurs on the reserve. To see a list of dates for this event then floow this link… http://www.rspb.org.uk/events/details.aspx?id=tcm:9-342593

In the mean time, here is a summary of todays walk by Rod Brummitt – 

At 8.00 am this morning Coombe Heath was alive with birds. Two Marsh Harriers were overhead transiting from the Middlebeere to Wareham Channel, one female and one juvenile. A gang of Mistle Thrushes were busy stripping the berries from the rowan trees and small flocks of Linnet and Meadow Pipit were passing through. Dartford Warblers were rasping at various spots in the gorse along with Stonechats. As to summer migrants, Chiffchaff and Wheatear were present in small numbers along with large numbers of Swallows and House Martins fattening up over both heath and channel.

Down on the water itself, and as reported by our WeBS counters last Sunday, Cormorants were flocking in unusually large numbers 40+ opposite the NT hide and over 100 making for Fitzworth. Other waders seen were Greenshank, Dunlin and Curlew, along with the usual complement of Little Egret and Grey Heron. Of the dabblers, Teal, Wigeon, Mallard and Gadwall were all present in small numbers.

As usual, the seal was present in Wych Channel and on the way back across Grip Heath. There was also plenty of Green and Greater Spotted Woodpeckers around too along with mixed flocks of Tits Siskin and Goldcrest in the surrounding woods.

It’s ‘terning’ out to be quite an exciting autumn so far in the harbour with a Poole Harbour first (Semipalmated Sandpiper) and a Poole Harbour second (White-winged Black Tern) in the same month. With the constant south-westerlies in the coming week it’s well worth keeping an eye out for species such as Pectoral and Buff-Breasted Sandpiper, the latter only record for the first time in Poole Harbour on the Brownsea Lagoon in September 2011. 

Other new arrivals this week have included the first Merlin of the autumn seen hunting along Arne Moors. There are now 10 Spoonbill using the Middlebere Channel to feed and roost in. At least 2 Osprey remain with birds commuting between Lytchett Bay and Arne.  2 Black Tern were seen off Arne and Sandwich Tern are being noted from pretty much every beach in the harbour.  There are large numbers of 1000+ Hirundines congregating at the moment with House Martin and Swallows and to a lesser extent Sand Martin making use of the reed beds in the north and the west of the harbour to roost in.  On Brownsea, Spotted Redshank numbers are staying around 8-10 birds, with slightly larger groups of 5-10 Knot. Black-tailed Godwit numbers continue to rise with an estimated 1000+ birds present at the moment in the harbour. 

Some exceiting news broke late yesterday afternoon, when a potential juvenile White-winged Black Tern was discovered at Swineham GP, a species thats only ever been recorded in Poole harbour once before. The bird was photographed by Peter Moore in terrible conditions, so full credit to him and the finder of the bird Marcus Lawson for even being out yesterday afternoon! On close examination of the photos, the bird was confirmed as a White-winged Black Tern and was re-found again this morning at 9:00am giving great views at it hawked up and down the main gravel pit. Thanks Peter Moore for the lovely close up photos.

Still, migrants are working their way through the harbour. At Arne, Spotted Flycatcher, Redstart, Garden Warbler, Tree Pipit and Yellow Wagtail have all been reported in the last couple of days. In Middlebere 7 Spoonbill have been a frequent sight, as has at least 1 Osprey. Other birds of note in Middlebere have  included Pintail, Green Sandpiper, Ringed Plover and a small build up of Teal and the odd Wigeon. On Brownsea at least 6 Spotted Redshank remain with 100+ Avocet, 300+ Black-tailed Godwit, 4 Knot, 3 Turnstone, 200+ Dunlin and good numbers of returning Duck including Shoveler, Teal, Tufted Duck. At Lytchett Bay Spotted Flycatcher, Tree Pipit and Lesser Whitethroat were notable passerines with 3 Curlew Sandpiper, 1 Little Stint, 4 Ringed Plover and a Spotted Redshank all present. Chiffchaff numbers are on the rise with the peak movement about to occur over the next few weeks, which is the same for Blackcap, so keep your eyes peeled in your gardens as they, along with other migrants can be seen foraging for berries and insects.

Greenlands Farm is an underwatched site on the Studland penninsular providing great autumn birdwatching opportunities – For full information and to book on follow this link – 

http://www.birdsofpooleharbour.co.uk/early-autumn-walk-greenlands-farm

A nice variety of birds scattered around the harbour today, just as you would expect for mid September. Starting with Brownsea 8 Spoonbill, 4 Curlew Sandpiper, 10 Spotted Redshank, 100+ Avocet, 1 Ruff, 400+ Black-tailed Godwit, a few returning Bar-tailed Godwit, 300+ Dunlin and a Kingfisher. At Lytchett Bay 1 Little Stint, 3 Curlew Sandpiper, 1 Little Ringed Plover, 1 Common Sandpiper, 10 Greenshank, 3 Green Sandpiper, 533 Black-tailed Godwit, 3 Wheatear, 1 Spotted Flycatcher, 10+ Yellow Wagtail and 1 possibly 2 Osprey. At Fleets Corner 6 Spotted Flycatcher, 1 Pied Flycatcher, 1 Sedge Warbler, several Whitethroat and 30+ Willow Warbler/Chiffchaff.

It seems a lot of keen birders were out in force this weekend with the number of sightings reported it. The arrival of some un-settled weather certainly seemed to bring a lot more migrants as they dropped down to take shelter from the intermittent showers.

It was the ‘Birds of Poole Harbour’ guided walk on Saturday, aptly names ‘Late summer at Middlebere’. An excellent range of species were seen including Osprey, 2 Whinchat, 2 Redstart, 2 Wheatear, 1 Spotted Flycatcher, 4 Tree Pipit, Blackcap, Whitethroat, Reed Warbler, Sedge Warbler, 4 Pintail, 6 Greenshank, Water Rail. It was also the Arne Raptor weekend this weekend where Osprey were the stars of the show with a max count of 3 at once. Also seen there was a Cuckoo, Black Redstart and Whinchat with another 6 Whinchat, 4 Spotted Flycatcher, 2 Redstart, Hobby and Sparrowhawk out on Arne Moors. At Lytchett Bay this weekend a Curlew Sandpiper was present along with 1 Osprey, 3 Pintail, 1 Whinchat, 12 Greenshank, 8 Green Sandpiper, 30+ Snipe, 6 Ringed Plover, 1 Common Sandpiper and 2 White Wagtail, along with a record breaking 504 Teal. Up on Hartland Stud 19 Yellow Wagtail, 1 Whinchat, 2 Wheatear, Red-legged Partridge and 2 Tree Pipit. Off Rockley viewpoint another Osprey was seen along with a Marsh Harrier and 37 Little Egret roosted in the channel. At Swineham an Osprey was feeding out in the Wareham Channel, also there 50+ Sand Martin, 2 Sedge Warbler, 1 Kingfisher, 1 Sparrowhawk, Kestrel and Buzzard. On Brownsea 8 Spoonbill remained, 5 Curlew Sandpiper, 200+ Black-tailed Godwit, 100+ Avocet, 2 Knot, 2 Bar-tailed Godwit, 3 Turnstone, 200+ Redshank, 500+ Oystercatcher, 2 Common Sandpiper and 6 Shoveler.

After all the excitement of Poole Harbour’s first Semipalmated Sandpiper at the beginning of the week, things then decided to calm down somewhat over the next few days. 9 Spoonbill continued to commute between Middlebere and Brownsea. Up to 9 Curlew Sandpiper were again on Brownsea with some other excellent wader counts. Almost 3000 birds of many different species were logged, so if you get the chance to visit Brownsea in the next week or so, I would highly recommend it. The same goes for Arne as up to 3 Osprey have been seen fishing daily around the peninsular and an early returning Hen Harrier was reported. Migrants are still pouring through with Blackcaps now on the increase, and it seems to have been an exceptional year for Garden Warbler.   

Still a few places available for our guided walk at Middlebere this Saturday follow the link for details. Should be a good one with lots of nice birds about…

http://www.birdsofpooleharbour.co.uk/late-summer-middlebere

The Semipalmated Sandpiper showed well outside the lower hide for most of the day on Brownsea. We also managed to get the bird on the webcam for over an hour at very close range possibly providing the world’s first online twitch!

The lagoon was stacked with birds today, other totals included 8 Spoonbill,  1000+ Oystercatcher, 56 Avocet, 9 Curlew Sandpiper,  6 Spotted Redshank, 2 Knot, 1 Sanderling, 200+ Black-tailed Godwit,  150+ Dunlin, 52 Sandwich Tern, 2 Common Tern, 1 Raven  and a White Wagtail. At Lytchett Bay today 16 Greenshank, 5 Green Sandpiper, 2 Ringed Plover, 200 Teal, 1 Shoveler, 3 Peregrine, 29 Little Egret and 5 Stonechat.