South Haven and just inside the harbour mouth was the main focus this morning. A great variety of mid autumn birds with a few winter species back in the harbour. The morning started of at 05:45 in the hope of a decent thrush movement over South Haven, but all I could muster was one Redwing and two Song Thrush. ‘Vis Mig’ was pretty poor with only 50 each of Meadow Pipit and Pied Wagtail passing over head along with 12 Siskins, a Kestrel, Great Spotted Woodpecker and a few Reed Bunting crossing the harbour mouth. 75 Brent Geese are now present at Knoll Beach Studland, where there were also two Firecrest and a handful of Chiffchaff. Within the harbour Brands Bay seemed to be the main focus for birds as three Common Scoter (two males and a female), an early(ish) Black-necked Grebe, 20+ Great Crested Grebe and three Red-breasted Merganser were all settled, but no sign of yesterday Red-throated Diver. 8 Turnstone and 6 Dunlin were also present on the beach at Brands Bay. Shore Road also had two Red-breasted Merganser and a fly-over Redwing.

A short wet trip down to the harbour mouth produced some nice birds in half an hour. A Red-throated Diver flew in and landed in Shell Bay for around 30 seconds before taking off again and headed into the harbour towards Brownsea. 5 Dark-bellied Brent Geese flew in high from the east over the harbour mouth and down toward Arne. 5 Sandwich Tern were still feeding off the sea wall at North Haven, and a Sparrowhawk made an unusual sea voyage flying low across the water from South Haven to North Haven. On the way back a quick stop off at Shore Road produced 8 Turnstaone on the beach, 1 each of Oystercatcher and Redshank and 2 Stonechat on one of the 4 gorse bushes! Poole Park had at least 30 House Martins and Swallows hawking over with 1 Sand Martin.

With a stiff south westerly breeze kicking in about 9am it made for tough harbour watching out on the water. The Brownsea Lagoon saw most action with 13 Spoonbill, 200+ Avocet, 300+ Black-tailed Godwit, 13 Spotted Redshank, 500+ Oystercatcher plus Greenshank, Turnstone, Dunlin, Shoveler, Teal Wigeon, Little Egret and a Wheatear on the sea wall. From Arne another 200+ Oystercatcher were out on the Shipstal spit along with 70 Cormorant and a few Redshank. Out on the water there was very little to report with just one Great Crested Grebe. The captain on one of the Brownsea Island ferries reported an Arctic Skua in the harbour mouth yesterday getting harassed by gulls.

On Wednesday 26th of September the first RSPB/Sound Approach School Birdboat launched with 75 lively children form Winton Primary School. Starting the trips earlier than usual means we’re hopefully going to be able to paint an accurate picture as to when certain species arrive back in the harbour during the autumn and winter. Our first trip certainly didn’t disappoint with an Osprey flying over Arne RSPB reserve before heading off down the Middlebere Channel. The Brownsea Lagoon was full with birds with 11 Spoonbill, 200+ Avocet, 600+ Black-tailed Godwit, plus many Redshank, Oystercatcher, Dunlin, Teal, Shoveler and even a lonely Wheatear on the sea wall. At least 10 Sandwich Tern were seen still fishing out in the harbour mouth whilst the first returning Great Crested Grebes could be spotted in the sheltered bays around Brownsea and Furzey.