Waders continue to be the staple at present with a few odds and ends still dripping through. In Brands Bay yesterday 3 Ringed Plover, 199 Black-tailed Godwit, 6 Bar-tailed Godwit, 1 Knot and 5 Little Egret were counted along with 30+ House Martin and 30+ Swift, including one with a white rump patch. Semi-decent views were obtained and it seems to have been nothing more than just a Common Swift sporting a dashing white rump…enough to get the heart racing for a few short moments though. At Lytchett Bay a single Little Ringed Plover, 2 Redshank, 3 Greenshank and 33 Black-tailed Godwit were noted.

Little Owl information

With your great feedback to our request for Swift sightings last week, I’d like to put out another request for information if I may. Little Owl has been absent (as far as we know) from the Poole Harbour basin for around 10-15 years. They used to breed at places like Arne, Middlebere, Lytchett Bay and Upton CP but with the increase in Tawny Owl and Barn Owl number’s, the Little Owls have been ‘forced out’. However, with so much suitable habitat, its beyond belief that Little Owl is totally absent within the Poole Harbour area. We have been working with Dr Emily Joachim who recently set up the new UK Little Owls group (and soon to be live website), which seeks to report and gather information on Little Owl sightings from across the UK. Although not classed as native, their drastic decline nationally over the last 20 years has highlighted the fact that something is going seriously wrong within their environment, and we’d like to get to grips with what that is locally. Is it just an increase in numbers of other owl species, or is there something much more complex going on?

We would like to put out a request for anyone that has found/knows about any Little Owls within the areas of the attached map so we can share it with Dr Emily Joachim for her research.  Any information would be gratefully received.

To report any sightings please email us at birdsofpooleharbour@gmail.com