As a charity we like to try and identify and set up new opportunities that will be of benefit to both birds and the public. Last year we spoke with Natural England about the possibility of helping to restore a set of freshwater pools at Sunnyside Farm, a site that over the years has been quite productive but under-watched. Although only a very small site, restoring a set of freshwater scrapes offers a new and different feeding site for passage waders passing through Poole Harbour and it’s hoped that by opening up the site like in years gone by, passage waders such as Green, Common, Wood and Curlew Sandpiper, Ruff, Little Stint and Spotted Redshank may all make use of the site again.

This is by no-means a landscape scale piece of restoration but in fact the reverting of a small area that was once open and free of thick vegetation. The Sunnyside site has a natural fresh water spring that runs through the centre of it and despite all the recent dry, hot weather is still surprisingly wet and boggy. However over the last decade the fields have become ‘clogged up’ with thick Juncas and its hoped that by re-opening up a small area in the south west corner then birds will be able to take advantage of the newly created pools. It’s also planned that the rest of the site will be cut right back where possible, although because the site is so wet in areas its just not possible to get into those spots with heavy plant machinery.

When Sunnyside was first created and opened up as a ‘site’ a small viewing screen was installed by Natural England, which initially was very good but as the site became overgrown lost its viewing appeal. The viewing screen is still in place and acts as good birding spot and you can locate it by following the red route on the map below. The car park is along the Arne approach road on your right hand side just after exiting the village of Ridge.The walk from the car park to the viewing screen will take you around 10 minuets and there is a small set of steps off the main track leading down to an access gate through one of the access fields. We’d be interested to know if and when you visit this site what species you see.

The study of nocturnal migration is a fascinating subject and one that’s certainly grown in popularity over the last 12 months. By sound recording or simply just listening to the night sky during peak migration times you can hear and listen to the calls of birds that migrate through the night. In the spring and autumn many thousands of birds choose to migrate under the cover of darkness for a number of reasons, but by listening to and analysing these calls we can begin to understand more about the timings, totals and routes a whole host of bird species are taking in and out of and across the UK.

In early 2015 we began ‘noc-migging’ with advise and guidance from Magnus Robb from the Sound Approach which allowed us to monitor night migration over our own gardens and even our offices in urban Poole. A friend and work colleague Nick Hopper was also recording at his house and later began night recording over at Portland Bill, which provided good night coverage across Dorset.

Within a few months it was obvious that we were beginning to ‘open up a can of worms’ and over the following couple of years, Nick, Magnus and Birds of Poole Harbour started recording and piecing together a picture as to what was happening over Dorset air space at night during migration time.

Its now great to see that this type of night monitoring has been taken up by many of the birding fraternity across the UK adding to the overall knowledge base with many people now recording night migration over their own back gardens. There has even been a great new website titled ‘Noc-Mig – All You need to Know, set up by Simon Gillings and Nick Moran from the BTO which introduces equipment options and techniques as well as an overview of the concept of ‘Noc-Mig’.

The recordings below (which we’ll be adding to over time) we hope will act as a (limited) set of reference material for anyone wishing to learn Night Flight Calls (NFC’s) of common or regular birds that migrate at night. Please use and listen to all the examples taking note of dates and times of recordings. The recordings below aren’t the only NFC’s from each of these species, with many birds using a variety of calls whilst migrating at night. We hope that over time we can add numerous call types to the list from around Poole Harbour, helping build and expand our knowledge base.

Enjoy!

Paul Morton

Hello everyone! I’m really pleased to have the chance to introduce myself to you all and tell you a bit about how my first two months (where has the time gone?!) as HQ Manager for Birds of Poole Harbour have gone.

About Me

I have loved birds since I was a child and remember clearly learning my first bird species (magpie) and watching yellowhammers in my dad’s garden. During my Undergraduate Degree in Zoology at Cardiff University I was lucky enough to do some project work on puffins, great black-backed gulls and Manx shearwaters over on Skokholm and Skomer Island off the Pembrokeshire coast. I fell in love with seabirds and felt in awe of my supervisors as they identified birds by their calls. After I graduated, I went on to do some field work for a PhD student on lesser black-backed gulls on Flatholm Island where I spent two months being attacked for intruding on a 2000 strong colony and measuring their eggs. It was brilliant! If being pooped on is considered lucky, I must be one of the luckiest people alive.

I then went on to do my Master’s degree in Wildlife Management and Conservation with Reading University. Here I was fortunate enough (thank you gulls?) to win a scholarship that paid for my field work in the Seychelles. I worked on a sooty tern reintroduction project on Denis Island with the legendary Professor Feare, and it was here that my career really took off. The Critically Endangered Seychelles paradise flycatcher had recently been reintroduced to the island and after I completed my MSc I was hired by Nature Seychelles to monitor those birds. I spent 7 months following the birds around, mapping their territories, recording breeding attempts and habitat data and collecting blood samples from their chicks. I also helped out with the Seychelles magpie robin monitoring and mynah eradication, and the ‘magpies’ remain one of my favourite birds of all time. Denis was also where I bumped into my first shark; a meeting that radically altered the course of my career.

I’ve always held a fascination with sharks, partly stemming from when I watched Jaws when I was far too young – thanks Dad! When I bumped into a small blacktip reef shark when out for a snorkel, it was one of the pivotal moments of my life. I looked at the shark, it looked at me and for a split second that felt like minutes we shared the same thought; “What is that?!”. I was exhilarated. At the end of my flycatcher contract I discovered that the Marine Conservation Society, Seychelles were looking for a Project Coordinator. I applied and instead of heading back home to the UK, I was offered the post and stayed in the Seychelles for another 3.5 years, gaining experience in shark, turtle and coastal management science and conservation.

When I came back to the UK, I spent a brilliant six months working for the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Trust, helping to map the distribution and model the abundance of natterjack toads and great crested newts before I started my dream PhD on great white sharks. I conducted my field work in South Africa with the Dyer Island Conservation Trust and Marine Dynamics, collecting photographic data and muscle biopsies from free-swimming white sharks. My favourite sharks include ‘Frowny’, the first shark that I named, and ‘Maureen’, a 4.6m female that I have actually spotted in two separate nature documentaries! I’m ecstatic to say that earlier this week, I was awarded my PhD with an unconditional pass. It still hasn’t quite sunk in that I’m a Dr!

During my PhD, it became clear to me that the sharks around the UK are hugely underrepresented and appreciated. Most people in Dorset don’t realise that we have many species off our coast, that that’s a really good thing and that several of these species are Endangered and could do with our help. To help rectify this situation myself and my soon-to-be husband Chris set up SharkStuff, a Registered Charity dedicated to education and research for the benefit of sharks, especially those off Dorset. SharkStuff has some really exciting projects happening this summer!

Why Birds of Poole Harbour?

I first found out about BoPH when I booked onto an osprey cruise last year. I was seriously impressed with the project, and the knowledge and passion demonstrated by the BoPH team. When I saw the HQ job advertised, my heart skipped a beat at the thought of being involved in some really worthwhile bird work. I was blown away by the superb new HQ and meeting the Trustees sealed the deal for me; their passion and dedication are infectious!

The first two months have flown by and it has been brilliant being able to engage with the public over our spectacular bird life and learning more about the different projects that BoPH are running. I feel like I have learned an incredible amount already from the Trustees and our wonderful volunteers, and my eyes have been truly opened to how lucky I am to live here. I’m excited for the osprey project’s second year to kick off in July and I hope to help to build the charity over the next few months. If any knowledgeable birders out there are keen to volunteer in the HQ, I’d love to hear from you!

Local environmental education charity ‘Birds of Poole Harbour’ opens the doors to its new engagement HQ on Poole Quay at midday on March 1^st 2018. The new visitor center styled space looks at interpreting the harbour’s rich and varied bird life, as well as offering a range of interactive experiences that showcases the harbour’s ecological importance. The new quay front location will have touch screen maps allowing visitors to plot and plan routes around the harbour, several listening stations so you can familiarise your self with the calls of local birds, several screens streaming exclusive content and local mini documentaries and it even has its own indoor bird hide!

Set up in 2012, the registered charity has spent the last six years working hard to interpret the harbour’s birds by setting up a range of people engagement initiatives that benefit both the environment and the people who wish to enjoy it. In 2017 Birds of Poole Harbour began their flagship project, an Osprey translocation which see’s them try to restore the Osprey as a breeding bird in Poole Harbour after a 200 year absence due to persecution. As well as this, the charity also engages with around 1400 local school children with their popular school bird boat project whilst also investing in habitat improvement and creation work providing new and different places for people to try and connect with wildlife.

Paul Morton, the charities co-founder explained

“this really is a milestone for us, we’ve spent a lot of time figuring out who our audience is and making sure everything we do supports and engages with those people and extends their understanding of Poole Harbour, its beauty and its importance for birds. We’ve seen a huge spike of interest in our work in relation to people wanting to learn more about their local environment as well as birds and with our new HQ opening on March 1^st this will hopefully act as a ‘go to’ focal point in which visitors can get a full overview of just how rich and important Poole Harbour is not only birds but wider biodiversity too”

With its prime location on Poole Quay front the charities new visitor center hopes to engage with a whole new audience of visitors and tourists to the area as well as them looking forward to meeting and speaking with locals who also have a keen interest in local environmental and bird related topics.

Paul Morton concluded,

“We’ve met many wonderful people during our first six years as a charity and we can’t thank everyone enough for their support up until now. Our new engagement HQ is now going to provide a focal point for our work allowing us to speak with and enthuse with people whom perhaps hadn’t heard of us before, or who simply just want a bit of advise on where they can see an Avocet or two!

The harbour is recognised as nationally and internationally important area for several different species of bird and is also afforded SPA (Special Protection Area) designation. It is also a specially protected RAMSAR site and has numerous SSSI’s (Sites of Special Scientific Interest) bordering the harbour.

Birds of Poole Harbour began operating as a charity in 2013 with the aim of popularising and promoting bird conservation, preservation and observation in and around Poole Harbour. This coming January we will have been operating for five years and this Christmas we’ve asked Father Christmas for something extra special. Early next year we’ll be unwrapping a new and exciting engagement project right here in the harbour, a space for you to visit, learn in and enjoy. The support, belief and interest our work has had from you, the public, over the last five years has been pivotal in allowing us to take this next step forward and we hope we can continue to build the charity and the opportunities we offer with your fantastic support. We don’t want to give too much away right now, but here’s a sneak peak into Santa’s Grotto!

This spring Poole Harbour’s important Black-headed and Mediterranean Gull colony will get extra protection with both day and night monitoring being carried out by the Marine Division of Dorset Police. The decision to carry out the extended patrols was made after it had been discovered last year that a mass illegal harvesting of gull eggs had been carried out on the remote islands in the west of Poole Harbour. Last May whilst surveying the islands, local charity ‘Birds of Poole Harbour’ soon realised that most of the 9000 nests were empty with human footprints also found crisscrossing the length and breadth of the uninhabited, marshy islands. The hope is that with extra monitoring being carried out through the peak of the gulls egg laying period, then it will act as a deterrent to any would be poachers who were thinking about heading out onto the islands.

Mediterranean Gull – Poole Harbour – Peter Moore

Through late April and into May, the eggs of Black-headed Gull become hot property as they become available to buy in some of the top restaurants across the country and are often even sold in places like Harrods. However, their exclusivity and high price tag leave them open to exposure as illegal poachers try to steal eggs and then find a way to get them into legitimate supply chains. Last years egg theft discovery in Poole Harbour was not only worrying due to its illegality but more so because of the unknown health risks the poachers were putting on unsuspecting consumers.

Paul Morton from the Birds of Poole Harbour charity explained….

“We know from our survey work last spring that both Black-headed Gull and Mediterranean Gull eggs were stolen from the islands, which is startling because even know its been proven Black-headed Gull eggs are safe to eat, there has never been a test done by DEFRA on Mediterranean Gull eggs to confirm these are safe for human consumption and there’s a very good reason for that. Mediterranean Gulls are a schedule 1 species meaning they have the highest level of protection under the wildlife and countryside act, meaning it’s highly illegal to interfere with their nests or eggs. Anyone found in possession of a Mediterranean Gull egg could find them selves in hot water”

Paul added

“Mediterranean Gulls have only recently established themselves here in the UK and the fact their nests are being raided already doesn’t help their long term survival here on the south coast. These are birds that keep themselves to themselves and make it their business to stay out of the way of humans during the breeding season”

It is illegal to interfere with any bird’s nest or eggs in the UK, however there are around 20 licensed ‘pickers’ operating under licenses issued by Natural England which sees Black-headed Gull eggs collected legally at just five small sites in England, none of which are in Dorset.

The discovery last spring prompted the MET Police to visit 13 restaurants in London making sure suppliers were 100% sure of the origin of their eggs as well as insisting that documentation can be shown, proving the eggs must have come from legitimate legal picking sites.

Joel Brooks from the Dorset Police added…..

“Wildlife crime affects everyone. The collection of birds eggs is illegal unless licensed and no one is licensed to collect in Dorset. Having a marine section gives us the waterborne capability to patrol these hard to reach areas meaning we can carry out night and day surveillance operations. We have wildlife officers from The Metropolitan Police in London making enquiries and checks on the establishments likely to be buying and selling the eggs. Its important to remember that quite simply these birds and their eggs are protected by law. To be working effectively with partner agencies including the Environment Agency and fisheries officers as well as the ‘Birds of Poole Harbour’ charity and RSPB we hope to put an end to this crime, therefore allowing the population of this vulnerable colony to flourish once more”

The Birds of Poole Harbour charity will be surveying the islands again this spring to see what effect last years illegal harvesting of eggs has had on the population of Poole Harbours Black-headed and Mediterranean Gulls.

Over the last few weeks, people have been getting all of a flutter due to the mesmerising Starling murmuration at Shell Bay, Studland. Since late December the flock has been growing as have the crowds of onlookers all waiting in anticipation for one of natures best and most spectacular events….but what is a Starling murmuration?

A murmuration is a large gathering of Starlings that forms at dusk before they all drop down into reedbeds, urban tree lines or dense thick hedgerows for the long cold winter nights. The ‘murmur’ is said to relate to the noise the birds wings make as they pass at close quarters, as for up to half an hour prior to them entering the roost they perform an incredible show of twisting and turning acrobatics, never once colliding with one another and all in perfect sync. The performance its self is enough to satisfy most peoples nature fix but the inquisitive amongst you will be asking…..why do they do this? Well, the murmurations in fact has several main functions. Firstly, you’ll only ever see these murmurations during the winter as Starlings from central and eastern Europe and even Russia join our local birds as they escape the cold that grips those areas from November through to February. You may have seen in the news recently that in central and eastern Europe at present temperatures have plummeted to minus 20 in some places, which would explain the increase in Starlings we’ve seen here in Poole Harbour. As you can imagine, sitting in a reedbed all night in the middle of winter is going to be pretty chilly so one of the main functions of the murmuration is to build body heat in each individual bird, which will collectively with all other birds in the roost act as one giant heater amongst the roost. That’s why it’s important to have so many birds roosting together and why the murmurations can get so big. Secondly, the murmuration is a social event and as the Starlings fly around they’re vying for position with the adult males making sure they enter the roost first as it’s the warmest safest place to be thorough out the night, followed by the females and then 1^st winter (youngest) birds. Thirdly, murmurating will obviously attract some unwanted attention in the form of Sparrowhawk, Peregrine and Merlin, so the bigger and more complex the flock looks the more difficult it is for a predator to penetrate the flock to take a single bird.

Starling flock – Shell Bay Studland – Jan 2017 – Paul Morton

The roost at Studland is by no means new with Starlings roosting there pretty much every winter since the late sixties. However the size of the flock can vary greatly depending on conditions in mainland Europe with just a couple of hundred which will go unnoticed to most people, to a max roost count of 32,000 in the winter of 1994/95. The current estimate of this winters flock is approx 15,000 birds and the main bulk of the flock has been tracked arriving in all the way from Dorchester!

Starling flock – Shell Bay Studland – Feb 2007 – Phyl England

The Woodcock, there is no doubt is a mysterious bird. During the winter they hide away all day in large, damp, mature woodland relying wholly on their impeccable camouflage to keep them hidden and safe. At dusk (and we’re talking about 10 minuets before total darkness), they pluck up the courage to leave their day-time roots and head out to feed all the way through the night. With both these factors in mind, it would be sensible to say that not many people get to see a Woodcock. Not only are they shy, but cryptic too and shrouded in myth with the tiny Goldcrest adopting the nickname ‘the Woodcock Pilot’ as stories explained how they would arrive in from mainland Europe on the back of Woodcock arriving for the winter.

Yet, despite they’re secrecy, recently we’ve learning more and more about this species in Poole Harbour having studied their over-wintering population and by developing a new high tech surveying and ringing strategy.

Woodcock are now an almost absent breeder in Poole Harbour with the last known breeding pair to be found at Holton Lee. Their breeding population is also declining nationally and was recently estimated to be around c75,000 pairs which is a worrying 76% decline. Sadly they’re still legally shot despite this decline and their preferred breeding habitats are also under threat. However each winter numbers are swollen by arrivals from mainland Europe and Russia with an estimated 800,0000 – 1.4 million birds arriving, many coinciding their arrival with the first full moon of November. During the winter of 2013/14 we commissioned Nick Hopper to carry out a full Poole Harbour over-wintering Woodcock survey. The survey would see Nick monitoring and surveying all suitable Woodcock feeding grounds within our Poole Harbour area, as well as recognising dusk and dawn flight lines to and from their roots. Up until then it was unknown exactly how many over-wintering Woodcock resided in the harbour but after 6 long months of dawn and late night surveying an incredible 644 birds were found just in Poole Harbour….far higher than any of us were expecting.

Stour Ringing Group has actively been trying to track down and ring Woodcock within Poole Harbour for several years with limited success. Both lamping and mist net techniques have been successful but numbers of birds caught and ringed has only averaged around 10-15 Woodcock per winter. However, at the beginning of the 2016/17 winter period (October 2016) a new thermal imaging scope loaned by the Birds of Poole Harbour charity has revolutionised the way we now target and catch this species. What used to be a long arduous process at times, bumbling around in the dark with a torch looking for feeding Woodcock has now become a quick and more systematic process as one glace through the ‘TI’ scope allows us to see where birds are feeding instantly. With more birds now being seen and with our catching technique now up to speed in just two and a half months the Stour Ringing group have now already caught and ringed just under 60 new Woodcock which is fantastic.

The purpose for our ringing activities and this type of research is to a) prove winter site fidelity meaning, are Woodcock coming back to the same spots to feed year after year?….well, yes some certainly are. Some even to within the same 3m square patch of field! b) to find out what type of habitats they’re preferring to feed in during the winter which allows us to work on any future protection planning and c) to learn where Woodcock are most abundant so we can inform and let landowners know their land is an important over-wintering feeding ground for Woodcock because lets be honest, unless a landowner is wondering around in the dead of night with a torch and TI scope there’s no way they could know! The hope is to have caught and ringed 100 new Woodcock by the end of March 2017 within the Poole Harbour area, whether this is possible is still yet to be seen but there’s no doubt that by monitoring and learning about their winter ecology we could be playing a small but vital part in helping our UK breeding population.

The eggs of a rare bird called a Mediterranean Gull have been illegally stolen in Poole Harbour for potential sale to top restaurants for consumption, despite the practice being highly illegal and with no knowledge as to whether the eggs are safe to eat.

The discovery was made when a local charity called ‘Birds of Poole Harbour’ was carrying out a survey in early May on the non-accessible ‘Gull Islands’ in Poole Harbour, a historic breeding ground for the much commoner Black-headed Gull. The rare Mediterranean Gull, a relatively new coloniser to the islands is a schedule 1 species, meaning it has the highest level of protection under the wildlife and countryside act, making it highly illegal to interfere with their nests or eggs. During the survey it became clear due to the vast number of human footprints and high quantity of empty nests that the islands which have historically held up to 9000 pairs of Black-headed Gull and more recently up to 100 pairs of Mediterranean Gull had falling victim to egging, a practice that sees Black-headed Gull eggs taken for market to sell to top UK restaurants.

Paul Morton from the Birds of Poole Harbour charity stated…..

“the issue is that both Black-headed Gulls and Mediterranean Gulls look very similar, and their eggs even more so. So when an illegal egger goes out to the islands in the dead of night to harvest the eggs, the nests of the two species are so tightly packed next to one another other that there is absolutely no way of knowing which eggs are being swiped. Also, restaurants will have no idea that they may be selling the eggs of a schedule 1 species, putting them at risk of prosecution”

Black-headed Gull eggs are legally collected under tightly controlled licenses from Natural England at restricted locations around Britain, however there is strictly no egging permitted in Poole Harbour of any sorts. The eggs that are legally taken by licensed collectors end up in some of the countries top restaurants, but with only 18 people in the south of Britain licensed to collect Black-headed Gull eggs, it seems the profession is slowly petering out, therefor creating a potential black market for this product.

Paul Morton added….

“there are several causes for alarm here. Firstly, there is absolutely no licensed egging in Poole Harbour, meaning it’s highly illegal to take either Black-headed Gull or Mediterranean Gull eggs from the islands. Secondly, although the selling and eating of Black-headed Gull eggs is well known, there has been zero testing done on Mediterranean Gull eggs from here in the UK to see whether they’re safe for human consumption. Not only that, but if eating establishments are selling eggs labeled as one thing but they’re actually something else, I assume they could be in breach of several trade and standards laws, just look at the whole horse meat scandal.

Paul concluded – “my advice to any restaurant currently selling gull eggs is to ask their supplier if they’re 100% sure of the origin of their eggs and secondly, be very very sure you have no Mediterranean Gull eggs in your possession as this could lead to legal proceedings”

It’s currently not known where the eggs from ‘Gull Islands’ are being sold but the police have been informed to help get investigations underway.

Useful links

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/foodanddrinknews/5065716/Top-restaurants-face-shortage-of-seagull-eggs.html

http://www.countrylife.co.uk/food-drink/delicacy-black-headed-gulls-eggs-84813

Medittaranean Gull – Poole Harbour – Peter Moore

Empty Gull Nest, Gull Islands