With the wind strength doing a complete u-turn this morning, having been blasting gales yesterday, this mornings calm start was a welcome and pleasant start to the day. With Osprey season fast approaching, we took advantage of the days settled weather and started work on nest and Osprey season prep for the coming year. Whilst scaling the main Osprey nest it was a thrill to have close fly-bys of several Mandarin Duck heading up and down the Piddle Valley, as well as 4 Lesser Redpoll and 3 Crossbill passing over, finished off with an adult male Goshawk hunting Wood Pigeons over the nest!!! As long as he sticks to Wood Pigeons. Elsewhere the White-tailed Eagle pair were doing the rounds with visits to Lytchett Bay, Brands Bay and the Wareham Channel. Lytchett Bay had a good raptor day with 3 Red Kite,  2 Marsh Harrier, 1 Hen Harrier and a Peregrine. Having been missing for several days (rather, hiding just outside our harbour boundary in Corfe Mullen), 8 Waxwing were in trees at Nuffield Industrial Estate this morning. The Peregrine pair in Poole were both roosting on the Asda flats. Both are definitely adults, so it looks as if they’ve shoved the younger bird from last years brood out of the territory. There’s still plenty of time for things to get interesting, but to our knowledge, they haven’t yet visited the new nest box installed by Dorset Raptor Group. There were 8 Spoonbill at Shipstal, RSPB Arne and a Spotted Redshank was still in Middlebere.

Adult Peregrine Falcon – Asda flats, Poole – Daniel Nash

Another wet one today, but it didn’t put off the Marsh Harriers displaying in the Wareham Channel this morning, with interaction and calling observed between individuals. A few other raptors were similarly unperturbed, including 2 Red Kite spotted over Rock Lea View in Lytchett Bay, however the Poole town Peregrines took a different view and could be seen hunkered down tight into the north face of the Asda building! Elsewere, from Jerry’s point at Studland there was 1 Black-necked Grebe, 16 Red-breasted Merganser, 5 Bar-tailed Godwit and 2 Grey Plover.

Marsh Harrier – Wareham Channel – @PlushieTumRs on Twitter

A fine day today with a typical harbour affair presenting it’s self. The White-tailed Eagle pair were over Middlebere, Brands Bay and in the Wareham Channel for most of the day, and yesterday younger (Christchurch Harbour resident) G818 was also in the Wareham Channel. This evening a Poole Harbour record count of 41 Cattle Egret went into the harbour roost, passing over Swineham, but alas, no Bittern tonight, despite near perfect conditions. There were 2 Spotted Redshank in Middlebere, a Black-necked Grebe was off Jerry’s Point. There was a ringtail Hen Harrier at Middlebere and Swineham, a Merlin at Greenlands Farm and 2 Red Kite over Hartland.

Full moon rising over Swineham – Adam Day

Our website is now back up and running, so we can return to posting sightings on here! Apologies for the technical difficulties over the past couple of days.

Finally some nicer weather in the harbour today allowing for lots of bird of prey activity with Peregrine sightings over Poole Town Centre and Shipstal Point. 2 White-tailed Eagle were seen flying over Arne RSPB, heading towards the Wareham Channel as well as 7 Spoonbill and 1 flyover Crossbill at Shipstal. A pair of Goosander were at Holmebridge this morning. In Lytchett Fields 1 Goshawk was enjoying the warm conditions, seen from the Rock Lea Viewpoint as well as 5 Greenshank and 3 Spotted Redshank on Sherford Pools. 1 Sandwich Tern was seen in Holes Bay sat on one of the marker buoys.

Peregrine Falcon – Poole – Tony Furnell

Slim pickings today but Red Kite are already becoming more visible with another over Coombe Heath today adding to the handful from last week as well. A White-tailed Eagle was over Corfe Castle a Merlin was at Swineham, a Cattle Egret was at Lytchett Bay and 2 Great Northern Diver were off Hamworthy Beach. Amazingly, yesterdays Pintail record from Brands Bay was broken once again with 1004 yesterday and 1111 today!

Great Northern Diver – Hamworthy Beach

Red Kite – Coombe Heath – Alison Copland

Spring continues to spring into action with the years (and countries) first House Martin seen flying over West Morden, just outside our recording area. The harbour Marsh Harrier’s continued to call and court one another this morning and there were Goshawk wars over the Wareham Channel with 2 males and a female all interacting. A Hen Harrier was seen at Swineham, a White-tailed Eagle was over Middlebere and a single Peregrine was on the Asda flats. In Brands Bay the summer plumaged Black-necked Grebe was still there and 2 Spotted Redshank were at Lytchett Fields with 4 Greenshank and a Chiffchaff in full song. There was a distinct drop off in totals of waders and wildfowl in some areas during the Poole Harbour WeBS this morning as some birds are starting to depart on their long migration back to breeding grounds over the next few months. However, there was a phenomenal count of 1004 Pintail in Brands Bay which is a staggering Poole Harbour total and more than double any historical Poole Harbour WeBS total going back to 1975! This almost certainly consists of some new arrivals, perhaps from further south, settling (also known as staging) in Poole Harbour/southern Britain before they continue their journey north. It’s good to see and log these movements and highlight that the harbour is as important for over-wintering birds as it is for passage birds of the same species.

Great Crested Grebe – Baiter – John Thorpe