What a day! Just as we were getting site envy that everywhere else in the country was getting good birds, two come along at once. Diehard patch birder Ian Ballam was doing his usual rounds at Lytchett Fields/Bay when he managed to find the sites first and Poole Harbours 4^thGlossy Ibis in the last 6 years. To add to this excellent record, a late dark and foggy evening visit to Lytchett Fields by other patch watcher Dave Jones came up trumps when he found Lytchett Fields 4^th and Poole Harbours 9^thBlack-winged Stilt. To have these two southern European species at this site at once is quite a unique event, and perhaps a sign of things to come over the next 10-20 years? Also present at Lytchett Fields were 11 Dunlin, 3 Whimbrel, 1 Curlew, 31 Ringed Plover, 2 Greenshank, 1 drake Shoveler, 1 Peregrine and the coot for its third day. At Arne, wader passage was also obvious in the mouth of the Middlebere Channel as 4 Grey Plover, 4 Turnstone, 1 Common Sandpiper, 36 Dunlin, 7 Ringed Plover and 5 Whimbrel formed a loose flock as 2 Yellow Wagtail passed over and a Cuckoo was feeding along a Coombe Heath fence line. 

Glossy Ibis – Lytchett Fields – Ian Ballam

Black-winged Stilt (honestly) – Lytchett Fields – Paul Morton