The event will be streamed LIVE on YouTube through the Self-Isolating Bird Club channel, starting at 10am. Find out more about The Reintroduction & Rewilding Summit here!

WATCH THE EVENT HERE

In 2021, it cannot be denied that our planet is at an ecological tipping point. Whether we’re discussing the climate crisis or extreme declines in biodiversity, taking appropriate action to remedy these problems is still not a priority for many of those with power. In the past year especially, nature has proven its worth 100 times over, with millions of us finding comfort and solace within it. At Birds of Poole Harbour, we are not content with letting the opportunity to restore and conserve our natural heritage slip through our fingers, and we’re not alone. We are a small part of a mighty network of people and organisations striving to make positive change for nature, exploring novel ways of doing so and educating the public as we go.

As a charity, with our involvement in the Poole Harbour Osprey Translocation Project, we’re particularly inspired by the uptake of wildlife restoration projects through reintroductions and rewilding, and we know that many other people are just as engaged and enthused as we are. We therefore decided to launch a new event, bringing these projects together to showcase them to the public: The Reintroduction & Rewilding Summit.

The R & R Summit is a virtual event which you will be able to stream live from home on Saturday 10th April 2021. The day will be hosted by the brilliant Self-Isolating Bird Club, with presenters Chris Packham and Megan McCubbin, and will be jam-packed full of content from different projects, conservationists and science communicators talking all about reintroductions and nature restoration. The event will raise the discussion of a multitude of questions, from whether reintroductions are the best way to re-establish native species,  to how beavers can shape our landscape, and whether rewilding has become an overused buzzword or is it actually the answer to reverse biodiversity decline? But most importantly, we hope the day will fill you with much-needed hope and excitement for the future of wildlife restoration and will inspire you to discover more about these projects. Speakers will include the likes of conservation hero Roy Dennis, Beaver expert Derek Gow, ‘Rebirding’ author Benedict Macdonald and The White Stork Project. The event will be livestreamed on 10th April through the Self-Isolating Bird Club and Birds of Poole Harbour’s YouTube Channels, and you can sign-up to register your interest and be sent the link to the event here.

In the meantime…

The R&R Summit Insight Podcasts

Over the next 10-weeks leading up to the event, guest podcaster Charlie Moores will be interviewing a series of reintroduction and rewilding project leaders, discussing the details, aims and inspiration behind each scheme. With many of these topics or ideas sometimes being considered controversial, these open discussions aim to lay all cards on the table, allowing listeners to hear about the processes, practicalities and outcomes of each of the projects and how they fit into a wider context of conservation.

Podcast 1 – Poole Harbour Osprey Translocation Project

In 2017, Dorset-based charity Birds of Poole Harbour began a 5-year Osprey translocation project in an effort to restore a south coast breeding population having been absent for nearly 200 years. In this first podcast, Charlie discusses with some of the Osprey project team the reasoning behind the reintroduction, their aspirations moving forward and the project’s place within a wider nature restoration framework.

Podcast 2 – The White Stork Project

Join Charlie as he chats with Lucy Groves, a project officer for The White Stork Project. Discover the motivations behind the project, the progress already made and what we can hope to see by 2030, as well as the impacts they have already had in engaging the public with the wildlife…

Find out more about The White Stork Project here: https://www.whitestorkproject.org/

Podcast 3 – Celtic Reptile & Amphibian

Charlie chats with Harvey Tweats and Tom Whitehurst of Celtic Reptile & Amphibian to dive deeper into understanding their ambitions, how they see themselves fitting into the bigger conservation picture, and what they’ve taken on board since attracting national attention.

Find out more about Celtic Reptile & Amphibian here: http://celticreptileamphibian.co.uk/

Podcast 4 – Rewilding Britain

In this episode, Charlie talks to Sara King from Rewilding Britain, who is the Rewilding Network Lead. They delve into the world of rewilding on a larger landscape scale, discuss the possibilities of marine rewilding, and the benefits of having a network of rewilding projects.

To find out more about Rewilding Britain and their Network, explore their website: https://www.rewildingbritain.org.uk/

Podcast 5 – Vulture Conservation Foundation

This week, Charlie got to grips with the scale of the efforts made to conserve vultures across Europe. Talking with José Tavares, the Director of Vulture Conservation Foundation, they discuss what’s needed to make reintroductions successful, how they go hand in hand with other conservation techniques, and the important role that vultures play in their landscape.

To find out more about Vulture Conservation Foundation, head to their website: https://www.4vultures.org/

Podcast 6 – Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation

This episode Charlie chats with Roy Dennis MBE and Dr Tim Mackrill of the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation. They discuss the recent updates from the White-tailed Eagle translocation on the Isle of Wight, the hurdles to overcome when planning a reintroduction project, and how translocations will continue to be a key player in conservation in the future.

To find out more about the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation, you can go to their website: https://www.roydennis.org/

Podcast 7 – Isabella Tree (Knepp Wildland)

In this episode, Charlie talks with Isabella Tree, who has been largely responsible for bringing rewilding to public attention through her brilliant book “Wilding”. They discuss the progress and influence of the Knepp Estate, the fantastic array of people who have been through its doors, and how to find balance between managing land and letting nature take the reigns…

If you want to learn more about Knepp Wildland, you can find their website here: https://knepp.co.uk/home

You can also find all the episodes on Spotify: HERE

We hope you enjoy the podcast!

Our final Pop Up event of the year will take place at Studland NNR in partnership with the National Trust Studland team this Thursday (31st Dec) between 10am and 1pm. Join our team across FOUR watchpoints for a last chance to maximise your 2020 yearlist and discover why Studland peninsula is such an important overwintering site for birds.

Studland Bay is an important feeding area for the UK’s largest over-wintering population of Black-necked Grebe, a scarce breeding bird in the UK. A good winter watch in Studland Bay can produce both Black-necked and Slavonian Grebe, along with Red-breasted Merganser, Common Scoter, Brent Geese, Mediterranean Gulls and occasional Sandwich Tern. Recent sightings have also included Red-necked Grebe and Long-tailed Duck!

Our team will be stationed at four locations across the peninsula. Find us at the watchpoints below between 10am and 1pm.

• Shell Bay
• Jerry’s Point
• Redhorn Quay
• Knoll Beach (situated at the Watersports Hut, next to the Knoll Beach Cafe)

Watchpoint map available here »

Parking is available along Ferry Road lay-bys, as well as the Shell Bay and Knoll Beach National Trust pay and display car parks.

Unfortunately, we are currently unable to share our optics at public events to limit risk of spreading Covid-19. Therefore, if you have your own binoculars and scopes, please bring them along, they will be really useful!

Footage from Shell Bay Pop Up on 9th Decemeber

Our team will be visiting Holes Bay this Sunday to help you bird this superb urban hotspot. Recent sightings from the site include great counts of Avocet, Black-tailed Godwit and Dunlin, as well as vast numbers of wildfowl and a small but faithful flock of Knot. The site offers a great opportunity to get your head around wader and wildfowl identification with our team.

Unfortunately, we are currently unable to share our optics at public events to limit risk of spreading Covid-19. Therefore, if you have your own binoculars and scopes, please bring them along, they will be really useful! Holes Bay is fully accessible with a cycle path running along much of the shoreline. The closest car park (pay & display) is located at Upton Country Park.

Holes Bay Pop-Up event, Sat 12 Dec

Where to find us: Creekmoor Drain (8.30am to 11.30am)

what.three.words – https://w3w.co/tame.bids.clear

Google maps pindrop – https://goo.gl/maps/SaUTNssCP1Kd335f6

We hope you are able to join us on Sunday, and keep a lookout on our social media and website for announcements of future locations and dates!

Summer-plumaged divers are among the smartest visitors to our waters and are readily identifiable. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the understated non-breeding plumages these birds adopt during the winter months. The dapper summer throat patches are exchanged for a rather less distinctive appearance. That said, swimming birds can usually be identified confidently with careful study of bill structure, colour and head, neck and flank details.

Over recent months, passage migrants and returning winter species of various shapes and sizes have been arriving back for the season. As well as worrying about the prospect of separating the divers, a supporting cast of cormorants, auks, grebes and ducks can add to the confusion.

Divers have a very distinctive ‘humpbacked’ flight profile, with long, narrow wings, large protruding feet that trail and powerful, direct flight action. Birds are typically observed singly but sometimes in loosely scattered, small parties and often fly well above the horizon. All have plain wings, which instantly separates them from grebes. Separating diver species in flight can be difficult, and distant or doubtful individuals should be identified with great caution. Grebes can be ruled out quickly as the weaker fliers typically travel low over the water, with trailing feet, with fast wing beats.

Great Northern Diver in flight silhouette © Ian Ballam

Divers usually sit low in the water (like cormorants, unlike ducks), but float higher when resting or preening, appearing long-bodied, long-necked and ‘tailless’. A very easy behavioural distinction from Cormorant and Shag is that divers do not leap out of the water to dive underwater. Instead, they gently bow their head forward and submerge with a smooth elegance, often remaining submerged for over a minute, moving surprisingly long distances underwater. Diving may follow a period of underwater surveillance (or ‘snorkelling’) with the bill and head partly submerged in the water.

Record shot of all three diver species at Studland, December 15 2014.

Of the three species that regularly occur in the UK, two are scarce breeders in Scotland (Red-throated & Black-throated), becoming widespread during the winter and the other (Great Northern) a regular winter visitor. Red-throated Diver are best searched for out in Poole Bay and Studland Bay where numbers are generally between 1-4 birds during the winter. Higher counts can occur during periods of bad weather as they move around to find more sheltered areas. In the winter, best places to look are out in Poole Bay, Shell Bay and Studland Bay with occasional inner harbour records at places like Brands Bay and even Holes Bay and Lytchett Bay. Passage birds move through Poole Bay in an easterly direction in the spring and westerly in Autumn and on days of strong passage up to 20 birds can be logged. George Green in Birds of Dorset does mention mid winter movements and highly mobile winter birds. The record maximum is 34 in Poole Bay on Christmas Day 1988, with the previous record being twelve counted flying in to the harbour, again on Christmas day 1984.

Red-throated Diver in winter plumage

Red-throated Diver Identification. Photo © Ian Ballam

Great Northern Diver are most common of the three regular diver species found inside and outside of the harbour. Outside they can be seen out in Poole Bay, whilst inside the harbour they prefer the deep channels around Brownsea, Brands Bay and the harbour mouth. Birds can also be encountered off the beaches at Shipstal, Hamworthy, Baiter and Shore Road on cold, still winter mornings, and have even turned up on Poole Park boating lake in recent years! Numbers tend to peak after sustained periods of bad weather, forcing birds to enter the harbour in search of shelter. The wet and windy winters of 2013/14 and 2019/20 saw harbour records broken each time with a high count of 16 around the harbour on February 12th 2017 and 19 logged during the Big Poole Harbour Bird Count back in January 19th 2020.

Passage occurs out in Poole Bay in autumn and spring and some full summer plumaged birds have even been logged sat out on the water in Poole Bay during May and early June. The autumn was a great year for passage birds, with up to 6 Great Northern Divers frequently recorded in October and November, of which 2 were in stonking summer plumage! First-winter birds closely resemble non-breeding adult plumage, but are separable at close range by detailed head pattern and pale fringing on upperparts forming a neat scalloped pattern.

Great Northern Diver Identification. Photo (left) © Clare Slade

Black-throated Diver are the least common of the three ‘regulars’, they can arrive and spend time in the bays outside the harbour mouth during the winter. They are scarcely recorded inside the harbour, when present the north channel off Evening Hill and Salterns Marina seems most favourable. In winter, birds can be also be found fishing off Sandbanks just outside the harbour mouth and into Studland Bay, with a maximum of 8 in Poole Bay 7^th January 1989, however most records are logged from winter seawatches from Branksome Chine. Unseasonal historical  records include individuals on 31st July 1978 and 13th June 1984. One also summered in Poole Bay in 2000 and was present from June to September seen mainly off Branksome Chine. One on Hatch Pond 21-23 January 1995 was a noteworthy inland record.

Black-throated Diver Identification

Inspired by a friend of ours recently, we’re planning on hosting an ID quiz leading up to Christmas, providing you with a head scratching ID conundrum to figure out. Each day we’ll post a new ‘EYE SHOT’, followed the next day by the answer, the original photo and ID info about the species featured each day.

Some will be relatively straight forward, some not so, and some will really get you thinking (and even provide some sleepless nights)

Each species is a regular visitor to the harbour, some more regular than others, but there’s no mega rarities, so with a bit of time (and maybe your Collins Field Guide), you should be able to work each photo

1.  So, to kick things off, here is the first ‘EYE D’ challenge. Whats this regular winter visitor to Poole Harbour?

Of course, our first ‘Eye D’ challenge was fairly straight forward with most people getting it correct. It was indeed a Redwing. The biggest clue in the close up shot is the creamy buff supercilium (stripe above the eye). The clincher in this photo is the snippet of pale throat you can see too, which combined with the supercilium makes this a Redwing.

2.  Ok, so we started off fairly easy. We’ll step things up a bit now. Any ideas on this vibrant passerine?

This caused a few more ID issues, mainly because of the lack of features to go by. The main feature is of course the bright yellow supercilium and the amount of bold yellow under the eye too making it a gorgeous Yellow Wagtail.

3.  Yesterdays was a tad tricky so here’s something a bit kinder. Whats this familiar harbour species?

Yep, most people got this one correct. Despite only being able to see its eye, it’s still possible to see the ‘cuteness’ of this Long-tailed Tit. The the big, broad dark/black stripe over the eye and the white ‘fluffy’ feathering below are easy clues to this being a Long-tailed Tit.

4.  With pretty much everyone guessing yesterdays correctly, we’re going to step things back up again today. So, whats todays tricky ‘Eye D’ challenge? 

Day 4 – ‘Eye D’ challenge – So yesterdays was pretty hard but several people still got it right. It was an autumn male Common Redstart. Well done if you got it right. Todays will be posted in due course!

5.  Day 5 Christmas ‘Eye D’ challenge. Something a bit different this evening. A lovely Poole Harbour species, but what is it?

Day 5 ‘Eye D’ Xmas challenge answer – Yep, most people got this one correct. It is of course a Ringed Plover. Thanks Nick Gadenne for the photo. Todays will be posted shortly. Its going to be another tough one!

6.  Day 6 ‘Eye D’ Christmas Challenge – A real Sunday head scratcher. Think outside the winter box for this one….

Day 6 ‘Eye D’ challenge reveal – Yep, many of you guessed it was a chat. Many said Robin, but it was in fact a juvenile Stonechat caught and ringed this summer. Right, we’re going to make todays extra challenging.

7.  Day 7 Christmas ‘Eye D’ Challenge – A tougher challenge today. No help just yet. See if anyone can get it before we have to drop some clues….

Day 7 Christmas ‘Eye D’ challenge reveal – Yesterdays was pretty tricky and in fact no one got the right answer! The bird in question was a handsome Garden Warbler! Better luck later today!

8.  Day 8 Christmas ‘Eye D’ challenge. So sorry, for some reason this didn’t post yesterday. Whats this (now) regular breeder in the Poole Harbour area?

Day 8 ‘Eye d’ Christmas Challenge reveal – These can often be tricky up close, but many people still got it correct. It is of course a Cetti’s Warbler. Well done if you got it correct. Todays challenge will be posted a bit later

9.  Day 9 Christmas ‘Eye D’ challenge – Excuse the poor quality, we had to zoom in quite a bit to make this bird not too obvious. So, despite the zoom…..any guesses?

Day 9 Christmas ‘Eye D’ challenge reveal – Well, many of you guessed it was a pipit species, but only a handful correctly answered Tree Pipit, so well done if you got it right! Todays will be posted a bit later

10.  Day 10 Day 10 Christmas ‘Eye D’ Challenge – There should be enough in this photo to help you ID this birders favourite….

Explore our interactive map

The Big Poole Harbour Bird Count brings together the community to carry out an in-depth census of the birdlife in Poole Harbour, and we are excited to announce that the October results are in!

The Birds of Poole Harbour team would like to say a huge thank you to everyone that got involved on the big day. Thanks to you, we have generated another incredible harbour-wide dataset, providing a fascinating insight into Poole Harbour’s important birdlife this autumn.

The Results

Because so many people helped to collect this data, we want everyone to be able to enjoy it! Follow the button above to explore the interactive map to visualise every sighting from the big day and generate a range of statistics.

Did you know?

Birds of Poole Harbour will be hosting the Big Bird Count every quarter, allowing us to better understand how our birdlife changes throughout the seasons. We are already gearing up for next season and look forward to building on this fantastic community-based dataset. We hope you enjoy exploring the results and thanks once again to everyone that took part.

Soldiers Road, October 25, 2020 © Brittany Maxted

Pipits have been on the move in recent weeks. Of the four pipits that regularly occur in Poole Harbour, two are resident, one is a summer visitor and the other is a scarce winter visitor. Meadow Pipits, often referred to as Mipit by birders, can be seen all year around. During the summer months, Meadow Pipits breed across our local heathlands, with strong populations at Arne, Studland and Godlingston. Numbers fluctuate in autumn and winter, especially out on open heathland where numerous feeding flocks of 50+ individuals assemble during the winter. Autumn passage can be an impressive spectacle, with counts of 500+ over the harbour during favourable vis-mig conditions. Much like with the finches we discussed several weeks ago, early morning visits to North Haven, South Haven and Ballard Down during September and October are best when looking to connect with large numbers of passage birds.

Despite being widely under-appreciated, disregarded as small, brown and squeaky, Meadow Pipit plumage is in fact an immaculate rich olive-brown, complimented by a yellow-based bill and pale pinkish legs. Their resident status unfortunately shrouds the considerable movements these attractive pipits undertake at this time of year. Estimates put the breeding population in Britain and Ireland at approximately 2.5 million pairs, and the wintering population at more than half this. Sizeable numbers (over 450,000) have been ringed in Britain and Ireland, but only a fraction are recovered.  This is considered to be due to their excellent camouflage plumage and the remote areas Meadow Pipits frequent. On the plus side, Meadow Pipits are amongst the most conspicuous daytime migrants, not least because of there piercing seet flight calls, and this assists in plotting there migratory flyways.

Ring-recoveries and observations reveal a steady southward movement spanning July to October and November. Some of the British breeding population do not leave our shores for the winter, and simply leave the inhospitable uplands in search of milder lowland areas, such as Poole Harbour. Those that leave Britain head typically move south into France and then southwest into the Iberian Peninsula, some even crossing over into North Africa! Movements of British birds are augmented in spring and autumn by birds en route to and from Scandinavia and Iceland.

Meadow Pipit. Photo © Ian Ballam

Rock and Water Pipits are visually and audibly very similar, both are more easily separated from the commoner Meadow Pipit in being bulkier, more upright birds with longer legs and a noticeably longer, more dagger-like bills. In flight, Meadow Pipit are shorter-winged and shorter-tailed, with a more hesitant flight. Flight calls are helpful when separating Meadow Pipit. Both Rock and Water Pipit give a strident single pseep, whilst the thinner Meadow Pipit call is a string of more feeble seep notes, generally delivered in pairs or triplets.

Meadow Pipit flight call

From Catching the Bug web-book © The Sound Approach

Rock Pipit flight call

From Catching the Bug web-book © The Sound Approach

Water Pipit flight call

From Catching the Bug web-book © The Sound Approach

Locally, Rock Pipits breed on cliffs around Ballard Down where they can be encountered throughout the year in small numbers. Rock Pipits are widely recorded during winter on the saltings across the harbour, sometimes in large numbers, with 60 recorded at Swineham on November 26, 1989 and 50 at Lytchett Bay on December 18, 2005. In spring, when these birds begin to acquire their summer plumage, it is apparent that many, if not all, are in fact Scandinavian Rock Pipits (race littoralis). Unlike our British birds, which are highly sedentary, Scandinavian littoralis are a separate subspecies that breed in – you guessed it – Scandinavia. February 22, 2016 saw eight spring plumage (presumed) littoralis Rock Pipits at Lytchett Bay. Ringing data from the Bay also supports these observations with two birds recovered with foreign jewellery, one with a Norwegian ring and the other with a Belgian ring (captured and ringed on migration from Scandinavia en route to its British winter grounds).

Rock Pipit. Photo © Ian Ballam

Previously considered a subspecies of Rock Pipit, Water Pipit was granted full species status in 1986. Water Pipits are scarce seasonal visitors to Britain. Locally, Lytchett Bay, Holton Pools, Wareham Water Meadow, and the Wytch Causeway are the most reliable sites during the winter. However, it is always worth checking any suitably wet marshy fields over the coming months. An incredible historic record logs a max count of 50 birds at Wareham Water Meadow on December 9, 1984.

The fact that Water Pipits winter in Britain is a curiosity. Water Pipits are an altitudinal migrant, breeding in the alpine meadows of the Alps and the Pyrenees, moving down to lowland freshwater habitats, mainly the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts of southern Europe to overwinter. The 200 or so individuals estimated to winter in Britain embark on a north-west migration in the autumn, highly unusual for a wintering passerine in Europe! Freshwater wetlands including cress beds and sewage works, as well as wet coastal pastures and marshes are favoured winter habitat in the UK.

Water Pipit winter plumage. Photo © Shaun Robson (left) & Ian Ballam (right)

Water Pipit. Photo © Shaun Robson

Late winter and early spring brings about additional challenges as pipits begin to moult their head and breast feathers. The transition sees Water Pipits transform into their gorgeous summer plumage, with bedazzling pink breast and dark ash-grey head. Confusingly, Scandinavian Rock Pipits (unlike our resident breeding population) may also acquire a peachy tint to their breast, although some breast streaking in typically retained, so be sure to scrutinise any moulting birds later in the season.

And of course, please check all Water Pipits for colour-rings! Report any sightings to Birds of Poole Harbour and find out how (and why) to report a ring here ». To date, three birds have been captured and ringed at Lytchett Bay, look out for yellow rings and marked 0K, 1K and 2K…

Water Pipit. Photo © Shaun Robson

Found ubiquitously around the harbour, you would struggle to go a day without encountering the familiar Woodpigeon. However, to truly appreciate the gregarious nature of these plump pigeons you need to witness the autumn passage that takes place every year in early November.

Woodpigeon are a common diurnal (daytime) migrant across much of Europe. Owing to their stocky size, Woodpigeon movements are relatively easy to observe on a crisp November morning in Poole Harbour, and last Wednesday was no different! The first few birds began to move just before sunrise, appearing over Evening Hill, the harbour’s premier Woodpigeon watching vantagepoint. Small numbers began to trickle through with flocks averaging 20, 40 and 100 strong at first, gradually building over the next hour to between 500 and 1,000. But then, 8am saw a notable shift as flocks between 500 to 2,000 individuals began streaming high above the harbour, passing south west over Brownsea Island and Sandbanks.

In the end, we estimated 75,014 passed over Poole Harbour on Wednesday morning, but it is likely high-altitude flocks may have passed through unnoticed, and so actual count is almost definitely higher. A respectable total, but this does not come close to the staggering 161,257(!) Woodpigeon logged over the harbour in a single morning on 7^th November 2010.

The spectacle takes place every autumn, but peak passage only lasts a single morning when conditions are perfect, typically falling between November 1st and 10^th, coinciding with clear skies and a light north easterly breeze.

Intriguingly, the origin and destination of these passage pigeons remains uncertain. It is assumed these are all UK Woodpigeons that have moved south through the country during the late summer and early Autumn and are departing the south coast, heading down into cork oak forests of Portugal and Spain.

British and Irish breeding Woodpigeons are generally sedentary, so it is unlikely that our local breeding populations are undergoing these migrations. That said, dispersal of first-year birds has been documented in late summer, ranging 30 km on average, before returning to their natal area to breed. Despite many long-distance recoveries on the Continent, ring-recovery data shows only very local movements of birds breeding in Britain to date, and similarly there is little evidence for birds arriving en-masse from Scandinavia. It could be the case that the Woodpigeons observed on the move are from highly migratory northern European populations, but ring-recoveries are lacking to back this up. It seems likely that the majority of these birds are from Fennoscandia and heading for France or Iberia and are not in Britain long enough to be ringed or for any rings that they are carrying to be recovered.

During large movements like this there are often a few Stock Doves hidden amongst the flock so be sure to scrutinise the clouds of passage pigeons. Stock Dove are similar in size and shape to the widespread Feral Pigeon, and so slighter and shorter-tailed than Woodpigeon. These features standout when scanning mixed flocks in flight. At closer quarters, Stock Dove plumage is a smart blue-grey with a flashy green neck patch. Woodpigeon are best distinguished by the large white neck patch and broad white transverse band on upperwings in flight. Note that juvenile Woodpigeons lack the diagnostic white neck patches.

Winds remaining fairly light as we progress into the weekend, however clear spells are looking unlikely and yesterday’s blanket of fog that settled over Poole Harbour north meant big movements never really got going. Evening Hill is the best location for the full Woodpigeon experience in Poole, however passage can be recorded across the harbour area. In recent days, Lytchett Bay has recorded c.2,000 Woodpigeon and Westbourne has logged over 13,000 in a single morning.