Well well well. We were only saying yesterday that finch passage had picked up across the harbour and low and behold 3 Hawfinch were heard and seen flying over Holes Bay at around 13:30. Hawfinch in Poole Harbour are exceptionally rare however over the last few days good numbers had been on the move across the UK with other Dorset sites seeing them pass over too, so it was more likely a case of ‘when’ rather than ‘if’ any would get seen within the Poole harbour area. The Poole Harbour WeBS counts seemed initially disappointing as the tide wasn’t particularly low but the Great White Egret was seen in Wytch Lake and Middlebere, the Velvet Scoter was out in central harbour and 46 Spoonbill were on Brownsea. The Yellow-browed Warbler was again in trees around the Middlebere Hide and the Stilt Sandpiper was out on the mud in front of the hide with 6 Knot, 2 Curlew Sandpiper, 1 Spotted Redshank, c500 Avocet, 1 Spoonbill and a fly by Hen Harrier. At Lytchett Fields there were 3 Ruff, 2 Curlew Sandpiper and 1 Little Stint. Additional goodies on Brownsea included 2 Little Stint and 1 Ruff. There were 33 Brent Goose in the Wareham Channel with 3 Pintail and 555 Black-tailed Godwit. In Poole Harbour west there are currently 5 Marsh Harrier and single of both Hen Harrier and Merlin are frequent around Hartland Moor. 

 Merlin – Middlebere – Simon Buckell

Merlin (juv)_2755 from Waderworld on Vimeo.

  Great White Egret – Middlebere – Simon Buckell

Great Egret@Middlebere.MVI_2745 from Waderworld on Vimeo.

 Peregrine – Middlebere – Simon Buckell

Peregrine@Middlebere. from Waderworld on Vimeo.