Long-eared Owl – Canford Heath

Spotted Redshank – Holes Bay

Spoonbill x 14 – Shipstal, Arne

Firecrest – PC World Drain

We apologise for the lack of updates on the website, however we’ve been away all week. We’re now back and will do a catch up of sightings from the last 5 days a bit later tonight.

Another nice day ended with a surprise when a Bottle-nosed Dolphin was found swimming around within the harbour off Jerry’s Point, half way between the point and Furzey Island. Dolphins outside the harbour are a pretty regular affair nowadays, but to see one within the harbour is exceptionally rare and we’re just hoping it’s ok and not injured or ill in any way. If anyone see its within the harbour over the next couple of days and think it looks distressed then please contact the British Divers Marine Life Rescue on 01825 765546 or 07787433412. Bird wise, it was much of the same with the Smew still in Holes Bay NE, the Lesser-spotted Woodpecker in the Upton CP wooded area to the north of the reserve, both the Lesser Yellowlegs and Green-winged Teal back at Lytchett Fields with 1 Water Pipit and 2 Marsh Harrier, 2 Great Northern Diver off Middle Beach with 6 Black-necked Grebe, 14 Spoonbill on Shipstal Point, Arne, 3 Purple Sandpiper on the Sandbanks slipway, 2 Spotted Redshank, 1 Greenshank, 1 Spoonbill, 1 Peregrine, 26 Grey Plover and good numbers of Avocet on the Brownsea Lagoon, 16 Chiffchaff at the PC World Drain and both Merlin and Hen Harrier in Poole Harbour west. 

Green-winged Teal – Lytchett Fields – Brett Spencer

Well the storm passed pretty quickly leaving behind it a settled enjoyable day with some good birds. At the PC World drain a Siberian Chiffchaff was fairly vocal and several of the over-wintering Common Chiffchaff were in full song giving a lovely early spring vibe. It was also a day of re-discoveries as the Great Grey Shrike reappeared on Slepe Heath and at Lytchett Fields the Green-winged Teal was back too. In Lytchett Bay a Goosander was out feeding and there were Great Northern Divers in Shell Bay, off Middle Beach and in South Deep and Black-necked Grebes were spread across Middle beach (4), Shell Bay (2) and Bramble Bush Bay (1). Spoonbills were at Arne with 14 there and 2 in the Frome mouth. In Poole Harbour west Hen Harriers were seen near Swineham Point and Arne, a male Merlin was on Hartland and Marsh Harrier totals are now back up to 5. There have also been good counts of Lapwing in some of the flooded areas with 600 in the lower Frome Valley and Middlebere which in turn attracted the attention of Peregrine at both sites. The 14 Barnacle Geese were back on Swineham GP. We also received a photo of a Snow Bunting on Studland Beach from January 24^th which we assume is the same bird that flew over the same area just a few days ago, indicating that it had been around for at least a week. 

Snow Bunting – Studland Beach – 24/01/17 – John Linfoot

As the stormy winds blew, a sea watch at Branksome proved fruitful with c50 Red-throated Diver most passing west, also 7-8 Great Northern Diver, 1 Black-throated Diver, c10 Gannet, 5 Common Scoter, 3 Fulmar, c20 Brent Geese, 3 Med Gulls, 1 Shelduck and plenty of auks (looked most to be Razorbill). Only other news from a blowy wet day was the Lesser Yellowlegs was on Lytchett Fields and the Kingfishers in Poole Park continue to impress. 

Kingfisher – Poole Park

A few snippets of interest with a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker seen and heard near the car park at Upton CP, 9 Black-necked Grebe and a Slavonian Grebe off Middle beach, 3 ringtail Hen Harrier in Poole harbour west a Red-throated Diver in Studland Bay. Off Branksome Chine 187 Great Crested Grebe were in several flocks with 5 Razorbill, 6 Red-throated Diver, 1 Common Scoter and a Sandwich Tern passing.  

A lull in the weather saw some good coverage a really great Poole Harbour find. A Snow Bunting was found near Studland Bay before disappearing north around 10:30am. Snow Bunting can be incredibly tricky to catch up with in Poole Harbour so its hoped it could have come down again somewhere within the harbour, perhaps Shell Bay/South Haven area? Apparently it had also been noted in the Brands Bay diary for last week too? Out in Brands Bay just a single Greenshank, 50+ Curlew and 336 Shelduck were of note. In Shell Bay, 3 Slavonian Grebe, 1 male Common Scoter, 1 Great Northern Diver and 40-50 Sanderling were counted whilst off Middle Beach just a single Red-breasted Merganser was seen. At Norden Sewage Works 2 Siberian Chiffchaff were with c15 Common Chiffchaff and a Firecrest feeding on the filter beds. At Middlebere 2 Marsh Harrier, 1 Peregrine, 1 Spotted Redshank and c500 Avocet were present and at Swineham/Bestwall there was 1 Marsh Harrier, 2 Spoonbill feeding in mouth of the Frome, 14 Barnacle Geese were on the pits, and a good number of Lapwing, Black-tailed Godwit and Dunlin are still enjoying the flooded areas of the Lower Frome Valley. The Poole Park Boating Lake is still semi-drained and a Kingfisher was seen with several Redshank, Black-tailed Godwit and Oystercatcher all on the mud. At Lytchett Bay a ringtail Hen Harrier flew through and Skylarks were singing in the Arable Field. At the end of Lytchett Heath, Bearded Tits were calling from the reedbed and on the heath Dartford Warbler were active and a big increase of Lapwing was noted on Lytchett Fields with 473 counted also the Lesser Yellowlegs, 1 Marsh Harrier, 2 Water Pipit, 609 Dunlin and 4 Greenshank present. There were 3 different ringtail Hen Harrier in Poole Harbour west late in the afternoon. 

Water Rail feeding with Blackbird – Lytchett Fields – Ian Ballam

As the rain continued to fall, the river valley’s continued to fill and it attracted many birds. On Arne Moors (viewed from Slepe Heath) up to 700 Lapwing, c200 Curlew, c300 Black-tailed Godwit, 100+ Dunlin, 1 Spotted Redshank, 14 Barnacle Geese, 30+ Shoveler, 20+ Gadwall, 200+ Teal and 10+ Wigeon. At 8:30am what looked like 80% of the Studland Starling flock all passed low over Holme Bridge, heading west before settling in some flooded fields to drink, before upping and leaving again. Along Holme Lane, there are now 12 Little Egret back in the cattle fields, but no Cattle Egret. There is however a decent sized finch flock with a few hundred Chaffinch and Goldfinch, well worth scanning through for Brambling or Yellowhammer in the coming weeks. The Lesser Yellowlegs was still on French’s Pools and the Smew was in Holes Bay NE with a male Goldeneye. Tonight we also went around the urban areas of Poole looking at the wet open grass areas to see what feeds here during the night. At Baiter Park, 2 Jack Snipe were feeding on the edges of some large pools with 2 Dunlin and at Hamworthy Park 2 Ringed Plover were feeding on the main field. 

Yet more fog and straining of eyes to try and find some decent birds, but interestingly fog on the southern shores cleared quite quickly allowing a count of 16 Black-necked Grebe to be made of South Beach. The Poole Park boating lake held 5 Redshank, 6 Black-tailed Godwit, several Oystercatcher, 1 Greenshank, 10 Dunlin, 3 Red-breasted Merganser, 5 Goldeneye and 4 Little Grebe. On the Brownsea Lagoon 3 Spoonbill were feeding close to our cameras and at Upton CP the Ruff was still feeding with 800+ Black-tailed Godwit on the eastern end of the park. Once the fog cleared 3 Woodlark broke out into song at Arne. At Lytchett Fields there was a strange sight of 22 Avocet swimming around on French’s Pools. A Sandwich Tern was on Hamworthy Park and at the PC World Drain still at least 30 Chiffchaff were along the length of the channel, including the ringed Siberian Chiffchaff. At Greenlands Farm, Studland a good number of Lapwing, Curlew, Oystercatcher and Redshank were on the flooded fields. The Lesser Yellowlegs was also on Lytchett Fields. A night ringing session in the Lower Frome Valley saw a big increase in Jack Snipe with 10+ seen and a few ringed, along with 8 Woodcock seen. 

Its felt like a while since we’ve had a good spout of rain and todays down pour did a good job at topping up the river valley’s and open grassy areas, making pools and scrapes available for birds to paddle about in. It will be well worth checking these areas over the coming days to see what get drawn to them. Sightings from today were fairly limited with a ringtail Hen Harrier at Lytchett Bay, the redhead Smew still at Holes Bay NE and the boating Lake at Poole Park begging to host good numbers of birds as its been drained. The gull roost on Brownsea is well worth a watch on our new HD Brownsea webcam, surely, SURELY a Glaucouse or Iceland Gull will put on a performance in the next few weeks??

Screen grab of Gull roost on the Brownsea Lagoon