No major American rarities today (sadly), but another Yellow-browed Warbler ringed at the Carey Secret Garden ringing station this AM was ‘YBW’ number 7 of the autumn for the site which is pretty impressive for a floodplain 3km inland. A Water Pipit was off Swineham Point (scarce there) this afternoon, there were Spotted Redshanks in Lytchett Bay and Holes Bay, c30 Cattle Egret were at Holmebridge and 3 Ruff were on the Stilt Pools at Swineham. In Middlebere 15 Spoonbill were at the top end of the channel and both White-tailed Eagles were in the Wareham Channel all day.

Yellow-browed Warbler – Carey Secret Garden – Matthew Scraggs

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

What a change in forecast, going from 13 degrees each day over the last few weeks, right down to 4 degrees this morning! Yesterdays clear weather saw male Osprey ‘511’ leave (finally) as there were no sightings of him logged anywhere today. The clear start did see some visible migration at the harbour mouth with 143  Fieldfare, 124  Redwing, 10 Song Thrush and 145 Jackdaws at sunrise followed by 359  Chaffinch, 346 Goldfinch, 54 Linnet, 11 Siskin, 6 Redpoll and only 1 Brambling. There were 2 Sandwich Tern off Shipstal Beach, RSPB Arne and 3 Red-breasted Merganser out in central harbour. Despite the cold NE breeze making viewing tricky in Studland Bay, a Slavonian Grebe was found and there were 8 Mandarin Duck on Holme Lane GP (3 female and 5 male), plus another 2 in Poole Park again. A Spotted Redshank was in Holes Bay N this afternoon with a single Cattle Egret in the field next to the car park and the White-tailed Eagle pair were observed hunting down a gull up on Ballard Down this afternoon. At Swineham 5 Marsh Harrier were off the point this morning.

Female Bearded Tit – Hatch Pond (Sunday 10th) – Ian Ballam

Finally some sun today, and a proper cold, crisp winter sunset this evening made for a picture postcard scene looking out across the harbour tonight. It seems it was this break in the weather that male Osprey ‘511’ was waiting for as he was around briefly in Middlebere this morning, but wasn’t then seen again for the rest of the day. Assuming he’s now gone, we wish him well and look forward to hopefully seeing him again next autumn. There was yet again another late Swallow, also utilising the break in the weather as one dashed south over Little Sea, Studland this afternoon and 21 Lesser Redpoll were in Birch/Alders down near the ferry toll booths. The Spoonbill flock were in Ower Bay this afternoon with 28 roosting on the mud banks and both resident White-tailed Eagles were in the Wareham Channel where there were 3 Marsh Harrier and a ringtail Hen Harrier was seen in Middlebere. A Water Pipit was at Lytchett Field and a Hawfinch flew over Lytchett Matravers. A lone Pochard was on Holme lane GP this afternoon and 3 Great White Egret flew over Wareham Common. This evening 100 Magpie went into the Hatch Pond roost

A rare sight of an Oystercatcher actually catching an Oyster – Middlebere – John Thorpe

Having had zero hours of sun for over two weeks, we were at least treated to 5 minutes today, which we hope is paving the way for nearly a full day of sun tomorrow. Clear sky’s combined with the forecasted northerly breeze may be what it takes to see male Osprey ‘511’ finally decide to leave? He’s stayed 2-weeks longer than last year, but to be fair, with high pressure over the last 2-weeks and no tail wind to get him going, then we’re not surprised he’s stayed. Conditions tomorrow are perfect for an Osprey to migrate, so we’ll just have to wait and see. Between holmebridge and Wool 55 Cattle Egret were feeding on the floodplain and a Goosander was feeding in the river near Holmebridge. Lst night we headed out to Sunnyside for our first winter ringing session of the season and there were actually good numbers of birds about despite being so ‘early’ in the season. We saw 6+ Jack Snipe, 5 Woodcock and 20+ Common Snipe and ringed 1 of each. This morning a Black Redstart was on the pavilion roof in the main Sandbanks car park and 55 Shag flew into the harbour this morning. At Hatch Pond there were 2 Bearded Tit and the drake Pochard was still there, plus, 4 more ‘new’ drake Pochard appeared on Swineham GP where 3 Ruff were also still on the flooded ‘Stilt Pools’. There were 3 White-tailed Eagle (our local pair and one of the recently arrived youngsters) in and around the harbour today, moving between Brands Bay and the Wareham Channel.

Jack Snipe – Sunnyside 

Woodcock – Sunnyside 

Definitely colder today with more Redwing and Fieldfare arriving this morning. Cold enough also to see 12 Spoonbill move from their favourite haunt of the Brownsea Lagoon over to Holes Bay NW. Scottish male Osprey ‘511’ was still in Middlebere pretty much all day and a Merlin was seen along the Middlebere track. A White-tailed Eagle flew low over the Arne road, 6 Marsh Harrier were around Giggers this AM and 2 Great White Egret were seen heading up the Frome Valley.

Scottish male Osprey ‘511’ – Middlebere – John Thorpe

Avocet and Black-tailed Godwit – Middlebere – John Thorpe

With the promise of some sun on Monday, and the some much needed vitamin D for everyone, will we finally see some movement of birds from the north? The blanket of cloud thats been sat over us since late October has resulted in 0 hours of sun being recorded in Dorset for nearly 2-weeks which has all but killed off any migration from the north other than Redwing. Finch numbers are well down compared to ‘normal’ early Novembers and we’ve not had a sniff of any Wood Pigeon migration. Will the sun also see the departure of long staying male Osprey ‘511’ into next week who was still in Middlebere this morning feeding on a flouder. This morning 2 Hawfinch flew over Rock Lea View at Lytchett Bay and a late Swallow also went through there late morning and a Spotted Redshank was on Lytchett Fields. A drake Pochard on Hatch Pond this morning is certainly noteworthy these days. The White-tailed Eagle pair were back in the Wareham Channel this morning and 4 Marsh Harrier were at Swineham.

This morning we hosted our first Winter Safari of the season, and the trip title certainly lived up to it’s name with a chilly easterly wind whipping across the harbour. The bird list also fitted the bill as more winter birds begin arrive into the harbour. In Ower Bay a Slavonian Grebe was feeding with 4 Red-breasted Merganser and in the Wareham Channel 5 Black-necked Grebe were off Shag Looe. The Brownsea Lagoon held 31 Spoonbill and another 8 were off Fitzworth on the mud banks, plus there were 12 Greenshank, c50 Avocet, c30 dark-bellied Brent Geese, c15 Bar-tailed Godwit and c200 Dunlin also on Brownsea.  Swineham was Marsh Harrier central with a minimum of 6 moving between Swineham, Giggers Island, Keysworth and Arne Moors and up on the Stilt Pools at Swineham, 2 Ruff were feeding with the Lapwing flock and a 1st winter Peregrine was also hunting Shelduck off Giggers island. There was an amazing FOUR White-tailed Eagles in Brands Bay too, which consisted of our local pair G466 and G463 plus two new arrivals in the shape of two 2-year olds from the IOW project named (confusingly) G644 and G641. Elsewhere male Osprey ‘511’ continued his long stay in the harbour by eating another large flatfish in Middlebere. A ringing session at Lytchett Bay this morning produced a really late Reed Warbler which was checked and double checked to make sure it was nothing rarer, plus a Yellow-browed Warbler. A Black Redstart was in a Parkstone Garden this morning which isn’t a surprise as there seems to be good numbers along the Dorset coast this late Autumn, and there’s a good chance there are more out there to be found! At Holmebridge an amazing 59 Cattle Egret were feeding just west of the bridge and a Great White Egret was feeding on the floodplain next to the road along the Wareham bypass. On the Asda building at Holes Bay 2 Peregrine were on the block of flats, including what looks like a new colour-ringed individual, with a red ring (and white lettering?) on the left leg. It would be good to try and confirm the ring number if anyone’s in town shopping over the next few days/weeks.

Slavonian Grebe – Ower Bay – Alison Copland

Reed Warbler – Lytchett Bay – Shaun Robson

Yellow-browed Warbler – Lytchett Bay – Shaun Robson