Have we missed the Wood Pigeons? We were amazed to see this morning that Portland had 110,000 Wood Pigeon migrating past/over the Bill yesterday. This is a phenomenon we don’t usually see here over the harbour until at least the first week of November. The other strange thing is that it was overcast and foggy yesterday morning with a light southerly wind. This is the total opposite set of conditions we normally expect Wood Pigeon to move in, with ‘Poole’ birds usually leaving on clear, cold mornings with a hint of north in the wind. There’s every chance the conditions were different at Portland and the birds simply by-passed Poole Harbour due to the cloud cover and early fog? Who knows, but if we too see a big push of Wood Pigeon here in early November then it could potentially be a huge combined autumn passage of Wood Pigeon across south Dorset. The Poole harbour record was in 2010 when c160,000 passed over during the morning of November 7th. There were some new arrivals today with a winter plumaged Red-throated Diver in the Wareham Channel this morning and a Hawfinch passed over Carey Secret Garden just after dawn. An Osprey was in Middlebere with 6 Spotted Redshank in the channel and a Merlin flew through. A Great White Egret was on Wareham water meadows and another was in Middlebere. Early this morning a Golden Plover was sound recorded over Oakdale during a noc-mig session and lots of Redwing and Song Thrush were on the move last night. The 4 Black-necked Grebe were reported out in the Wareham Channel again and male White-tailed Eagle G463 was on the edge of the Wareham Channel for most of the morning. In the PCW Drain Chiffchaff numbers have dropped right down with only c10 present, but also 2 Kingfisher present there. Marsh Harrier numbers have reached 12 recently, birds regularly being seen in Lytchett Bay, Middlebere and at Swineham. Finally, a Jack Snipe was flushed on Middlebere Heath this evening but (as they do) immediately dropped down again 20m away, allowing for a close, slow approach and a game of ‘hunt the Jack Snipe’ to ensue.

Jack Snipe lurking in the cover. Can you find it?

Jack Snipe close up!