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.

Wednesday 12^th was a wet and horrid day, with no let up in the wind or persistent rain all day. Unsurprising that reports were few and far between. The summer plumaged Ruff was still at Swineham, as were the two Little Ringed Plover and a new colour ringed Black-tailed Godwit. The two Roseate Terns on Brownsea lagoon are beginning to look rather settled as Sandwich Tern chick numbers carry on increasing, also there 11 Avocet, 5 Turnstone, 6 Dunlin, 1 Grey Plover, 1 Black-tailed Godwit, 1 Bar-tailed Godwit and numerous Shoveler and Gadwall.

There has been a special request by an out of county ringing group for any birders who are out and about in Poole Harbour to keep an eye out for colour ringed Shelduck and Black-tailed Godwit. If you do see either of these species with a ring or combination of rings on their legs could you please note the colours, and what legs they’re on and email us the information, or better still email us in a photo. Thank you.

It’s “Wild About Brownsea” this weekend – Come and meet Birds of Poole Harbour in the ‘Mac Hide’ http://ow.ly/lZ9MV …

With a warm muggy morning awaiting us when we woke up, and a very light SE breeze it felt like a few birds may have arrived, and sure enough they did.

A likely Great White Egret was photographed flying over Lytchett Bay at around 8:30am heading SW. The attached photograph shows an Egret sp with very long broad wings and long trailing legs. If accepted, it would be the second record for the site in two years. Even more stunning was a full summer plumaged Ruff that was found on the muddy pools at Swineham. Also the there 225 Black-tailed Godwit and 2 adult Little Ringed Plover, which are either very late on migration north, or very early on migration south. The 2 Roseate Terns on Brownsea Island were showing brilliantly on the webcam all afternoon and also still on Brownsea 5 Avocet, 2 Sanderling, 1 Little Tern, 1 pair of Yellow-legged Gulls and good numbers of Shelduck ducklings and Gadwall.

Saturday 8^th had very few reports. Some lovely images were sent in though from the Brownsea Lagoon where 2 Roseate Terns were frequenting the islands in front of the Mac Hide. They were picked up on the webcam for a few minuets showing really well, but flew off before news could be put out. Also still Mediterranean Gull present and more and more Sandwich Tern chicks are hatching. Also on Brownsea still 5 Avocet.