Today started off strangely when a male Wood Duck flew through over the Holton Lee reed bed at around 8:15am. Ok, there are several feral populations around the UK but as far as we can recall there haven’t been any Dorset, let alone Poole Harbour records for this species for a number of years. We also did another survey up the Wareham Channel today too, and although a cold westerly blew we still counted 3 Swift and reasonable numbers of Swallow, House and Sand Martin over Bestwall. There were still plenty of singing Reed and Sedge Warbler along the River Frome walk and 3 Common Sandpiper, 8 Whimbrel and 2 Oystercatcher were around the Swineham area. Out in central harbour it seems all over-wintering wildfowl have now moved on with just c20 Great Crested Grebe hanging on. At Arne both singing Wood Warbler and Redstart were seen down near the Shipstal Wood, with 12 Whimbrel in Middlebere. On Brownsea 32 Common Tern and 62 Sandwich Tern were counted with Bar-tailed Godwit, Ringed Plover, Greenshank, Dunlin, Knot and 80 Med Gulls also recorded.
This morning heralded the first proper Redwing arrival of the autumn with flocks ranging between 20 -200 individuals…
Find out moreIt seems the harbour managed to avoid the worst of the weather today with torrential rain just north…
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