It’s always a good day when information of a new species for Poole Harbour suddenly appears out of nowhere. Frustratingly the news came a bit late though as there’s been no sign since it’s discovery last weekend. The bird in question is a Dark-eyed Junco, an incredibly rare North American passerine (songbird) of which there are only 3 previous Dorset records. The homeowners/finders happened to look out in to their Upton garden on Saturday, only to see a dark finch-like bird on their bird table with a white belly. It then visited the garden a few times over the weekend, moving between eating seed on the floor and on the bird table, before then disappearing on Sunday. Not knowing what the bird was, they took a few photos on their phone and thought nothing much of it. It wasn’t until today when a fortuitous conversation was had at Rock Lea View, Lytchett Bay with Ian Ballam that the finders asked Ian if he could identify a mystery bird they saw in their garden….he rest as they say…is history! Being mid-November there’s a good chance this bird is settled and could easily be in a garden elsewhere, so all we can advise is all garden owners in Upton (and perhaps beyond in Hamworthy) keep an eye out on your feeders or on your bird table over the coming weeks to see if this rare American vagrant pays a visit to your establishment. We haven’t seen the photos yet, but if we do, we’ll try and get permission to see if we can add them to our sightings page ASAP.

Away from all this excitement, sightings from elsewhere today included 2 Slavonian Grebe and 2 Black-necked Grebe off Middle Beach, Studland, Brownsea was busy and saw 14 Greenshank, 40 Grey Plover, 9 Turnstone, 540 Dunlin, 55 Redshank, 2 Sanderling, 2 Knot, 21 Curlew, 15 Ringed Plover, 25 Bar-tailed Godwit, 124 Black-tailed Godwit and 356 Avocet. Brands Bay saw an increase in wildfowl with 259 Pintail now present and 15 Red-breasted Merganser were out feeding in the bay. There were 2 Black-necked Grebe in the Wareham Channel and up to 18 Marsh Harrier have been roosting in the west harbour roost. A Spotted Redshank was out in Lytchett Bay and this morning a male Blackcap was ringed at the Carey Secret Garden ringing station, posing the question whether this was a late departing individual, or, a newly arrived over-wintering bird which will end up in an urban garden somewhere this winter feeding on fat balls and suet?!

Male Blackcap – Carey Secret Garden Ringing Station – Matt Scraggs