Today was an absolute scorcher with the sun blazing down and drenching everything all day long.  Highlights from the last few days have to be the quite significant rise in wader numbers at various sites. At Holes Bay there was a decent count of 80 Redshank, 45 Curlew, 19 Black-tailed Godwit and 9 Oystercatcher, interestingly also a Wigeon there too. At Lytchett Bay a great total of 12 Green Sandpiper, 44 Curlew, 17 Little Egret and 2 Black-tailed Godwit. A ringing session targeting on Nightjar in the north of the harbour was successful with a second year male being ringed.

More evidence of wader passage today from Brownsea with 3 Spotted Redshank, 11 Redshank, 2 Common Sandpiper and 1 Avocet. Also on Brownsea at least 10 broods of Shelduck ducklings of various ages.  At Lytchett Bay 3 Green Sandpiper, 2 Lapwing, 5 Teal, 1 Hobby over, several Bearded Tits and a Grey Wagtail.  At Swineham the wader theme continued with 1 Little Ringed Plover, 1 Black-tailed Godwit and 2 Lapwing, also there a large group of 50+ Swift, Sedge Warbler and Reed Warbler still active in the reedbed and a Common Seal made it’s way up into the Wareham Channel.

I am thrilled to announce that the ‘Birds of Poole Harbour’ group is now a registered charity.  Our aim is to boost the profile of bird watching and bird conservation in the harbour using a variety of public engagement projects.  We strive to provide the general public with as much information as possible about this nationally and internationally important site.

What we will be offering

Educational monthly field trips for the public

Educational bird boat tours for local schools with the local Poole RSPB group

Public talks programme

Free specially commissioned surveys to give the public access to various scientific studies from around the harbour

The opportunity to help contribute towards various conservation projects across the harbour

Plus all the usual access to the stunning Brownsea Island webcam, regular sightings updates, video footage of some of the harbours best birds and other interesting events.

As a small charity we understand it is vital to work closely with the larger conservation NGO’s such as the RSPB, DWT and NT with whom we will continue working with in order to promote all their main aims and values. 

Registered Charity Number 1152615 BIRDS OF POOLE HARBOUR

The rains held off the last few days and the temperature continues to make it feel like summer. A mixture over overcast sky’s and bright sunshine has provided a stark contrast as more and more young birds continue to surface.

At Swineham a late Cuckoo has been very active still, calling continuously over the last few days. Also there the Sedge Warbler’s seem to been starting a second brood and Reed Bunting, Goldfinch and Greenfinch all have young. Bearded Tits seem to be doing very well in the reed beds around the Frome with many dashing over the tops of the reeds from Swineham Point. Unfortunately the Swineham flood pools have totally dried up now, reducing the chances of passage waders using them as feeding station. Some excellent news from Brownsea where a minimum of 100 Sandwich Tern chicks look like they’re going to fledge. Compare that total to only 70 fledged birds in the last 3 years makes this year a huge success. The Common Tern chicks have just begun to hatch and the Roseate Terns are still present on Brownsea, and 1-2 Common Sandpiper keeping putting in an appearance. At Lytchett Bay the autumn continues to creep up with another 4 Green Sandpiper and 8 Teal arriving, with a Lapwing, 2 Common Tern, 5 Sand Martin and 2 Cetti’s Warbler present. 

A warm and sticky last few days means lots of midges about, never nice when trying to watch Nightjar or an taking an early morning stroll to look for early migrants. Either way, the birds are still keeping us entertained with young birds being fed by mum and dad, and some birds gearing up for a second brood. Great Crested Grebe are with young at Swineham and Hatch Pond. The Roseate Terns are still present on Brownsea , also there  2 Common Sandpiper, only 1 Avocet left and the Yellow-legged Gull chicks are almost ready to fledge. At Lytchett Bay, possible breeding evidence of Redshank was seen as a tight group of 5 birds hid in channel. Also at Lytchett Bay Bearded Tits were pinging from the large reedbed to the north of the bay, and a Lesser Whitethroat continued to sing.  Dartford Warbler, Stonechat, Linnet and Meadow Pipit all seem to be having good breeding years out on the heaths.

The wind gradually died down throughout the day to leave a nice pleasant,  summers evening for us to enjoy. A few nice snippets from today included either one or two Roseate Terns back on Brownsea Lagoon webcam for several periods of the day, also on Brownsea another Spotted Redshank. An Osprey was seen over Arne RSPB reserve this evening. At Lytchett Bay a flock of 11 Linnet must have contained at least 8 juvenile, which was notable, also there a Reed Warbler singing from an Oak tree in a wooded lane seemed odd! Freshly fledged Grey Heron were noted as were several family parties of Pied Wagtail.

A few weeks ago we showed a photo of the below ringed Black-tailed Godwit at Swineham. Local birder Ian Ballam has emailed me with information on where it was ringed and it’s movements over the last year….

He states that his team ringed this bird on 9^th  July 2012 at Langhus, SW of Siglufjordur, N Iceland as a big chick. The yellow flag indicates that the bird was ringed in Iceland.

I’m afraid to say it but summer has already started to wane, making way for autumn to creep its way into our lives, well in the bird world it has.

I would like to apologies for the lack of news over the last week, but as ‘autumn’ migration is now starting to get underway then our sightings blog should almost now be daily.

The first birds to have reached us on their journey south are Green Sandpiper, Spotted Redshank and Common Sandpiper. These are all birds that breed much further north (as high as the arctic), but their breeding season is so short that it is quite common for their journey south to begin in mid June. Spotted Redshank have a strange relationship in that when their egg hatches the female leaves to head south leaving the male in charge of raising the chick. Green Sandpiper are another early breeder with peak counts reaching us by late August. Just like the smaller passerines, many waders are heading south down to Africa for the winter but stopping off at any wetland, coastal, reservoir, muddy pool feeding site on the way to refuel.

There are still lots of young birds being reported with Siskin being a strange but regular addition to the list and young birds such as grey Heron, Little Egret and Med Gulls are being seen dotted around the harbour.

The recent winds have kept many bird’s heads low, and our recent Nightjar walk at Arne unfortunately only rewarded us with the sound of 1 male churring very briefly. You can’t have it all!

This weekend saw the Dorset Wildlife Trusts Wild about Brownsea weekend where members of the public could visit the island and get involved in a whole manner of activities and learn about Brownsea unique wildlife. The DWT kindly invited us to sit in the Mac Hide all weekend and talk to people about the birds of Poole Harbour and the conservation work that is carried out to protect them. Obviously some bird watching took place in between talking to people and some great birds were seen. The biggest surprise was when a Honey Buzzard drifted across the lagoon upsetting all of the Common Tern colony.  Other highlights included 3 Roseate Terns on Sunday afternoon along with an Arctic Tern earlier in the afternoon.  There were 6 Avocet including a colour-ringed bird I couldn’t quite make out the colour combination, also 2 Sanderling, 1 Dunlin, 240 pairs of Sandwich Terns, 100+ pairs of Common Tern plus all the usual Oystercatcher, Gadwall, noisy Black-headed Gulls and the lovely breeding Yellow-legged Gulls. Also a newly fledged Med Gull, but as none have bred on Brownsea this year it must have come from somewhere else in the harbour. All in all a total of 34 species were recorded on the lagoon over 2 days including four species of Tern and six species of Gull. If you haven’t been to witness one of Dorset’s best bird spectacles I highly recommend you get over there in the next couple of weeks

 Friday 14^th started of overcast and still, but ended warm sunny and fairly breezy. Sightings from the Brownsea Lagoon included a 1^st summer Little Gull, Arctic Tern, 8 Avocet, 1 Bar-tailed Godwit, 6 Dunlin and a Lesser-spotted Woodpecker has been seen in the woodland on the DWT reserve. A late report of the Poole Harbour Osprey was received from yesterday. At Swineham 30+ Swift were feeding over the main gravel pit, only 2 Black-tailed Godwit were on the pools and at least 15 Reed Bunting counted. 

It’s also the time of year when local raptor experts carry out their monitoring of hawk and owl boxes to ring the young and monitor the increase/decrease in local populations. I was lucky enough to join them one morning and although most of the boxes we checked were out of the Poole Harbour area, it’s very obvious that many Barn Owls are at least a month behind and that Kestrels seem to have had a bit of a tough time this spring, with the number of chicks fairly low across all boxes checked.