Excuse the poor photo, but it was good to get a new raptor on one of our Osprey nest cams this evening, when a Short-eared Owl landed on one of our Middlebere Osprey nest cams. Annoyingly the photo was over-exposed when it got transmitted through to us, but hey, it’s still a good record. There must be at least 2-3 ‘shorties’ around at the moment as a couple are regularly being seen around the Arne Moors, Stoborough Heath and Swineham area with sightings in the Frome Valley and Wild Woodbury too. They’re often not becoming active until near total darkness which is a bit of a pain, but there’s a good chance of bumping into one with a dusk walk at Middlebere or Swineham over the coming weeks. This morning was a bit of a right off but the Great Northern Diver and Common Scoter were still in Lytchett Bay and this evening 3 Great White Egret flew into roost on the gravel pit and there were at least 9 Marsh Harrier in the vicinity. Off Redhorn Point there was a single Red-throated Diver and 3 Great Northern Diver were in South Deep.

Apologies for the delay in sightings but we’ve only just finished the first Sunnyside Ringing Demo of the winter season and what a successful session it was! Without a real cold snap yet this winter we weren’t sure how much we would find as we’re still waiting for a big arrival of species like Woodcock. But with some determination all three target nocturnal waders were caught and ringed including, 2 Jack Snipe, 2 Common Snipe and 1 Woodcock as a great comparison of all three similar species for the people watching. A bonus of 1 Skylark and 2 Fieldfare were also nice to find during the demo and plenty of Redwing calling overhead.

We also had a fantastic Winter Safari this afternoon, despite the cold, with a really good wader display at the Brownsea Lagoon to start the trip with c300 Avocet, c400 Black-tailed Godwit, c200 Dunlin, 6 Greenshank, 6 Spoonbill and 10 Grey Plover providing quite the spectacle as the number of wintering waders are slowly building up. Moving into South Deep we had 1 Great Northern Diver (as well as 1 in central harbour and 1 in the Wareham Channel) and plenty of Dark-bellied Brent Geese moving around to find feeding areas as the tide dropped. The 3 Eider (2 juvenile males and 1 female) were again seen in central harbour alongside plenty of Red-breasted Merganser and Great crested Grebes. In the Wareham Channel at least 5 Marsh Harrier were interacting around Swineham and Arne Moors providing great views as well as one distant ringtail Hen Harrier and a Peregrine in the setting sunlight. Just as we were starting to head back we suddenly saw the pair of White-tailed Eagles flying into the channel, setting upon a raft of fishing sinensis Cormorants. They singled one out that didn’t appear to be able to fly and continuously dive-bombed it but, after a couple of minutes of the Cormorant frantically diving to escape, the White-tailed Eagles gave up and settled together on the shoreline close to the boat. This gave stunning views as a finale to an excellent Winter Safari cruise, full of raptors, waders, waterfowl and more.

Elsewhere in the harbour were 5 Black-necked Grebe and 1 Great Northern Diver off Knoll Beach. Also seen earlier in the day on Arne Moors were 2 Great White Egret and an adult male Hen Harrier. 2 Spotted Redshank were in Holes Bay this morning and in Lytchett Bay there was 1 Great Northern Diver still present, as well as 9 Greenshank. At Holmebridge there were 2 Ruff, 1 Green Sandpiper, 1 Marsh Harrier and flyovers of 5 Crossbill and 2 Redpoll. 

White-tailed Eagle pair G466 (female) and G463 (male) from our Winter Safari Cruise – Mike Gaston

3 Eider (2 males and 1 female) in Central Harbour from our Winter Safari Cruise – Mike Gaston

Fieldfare ringing – Nocturnal Ringing Demo this evening

Yep, more rain! To be fair it soon cleared away and the rest of the day was a beaut. The wind and rain this morning did force a 1st winter Kittiwake into the harbour which flew along Poole Quay towards Holes Bay. At the harbour mouth this morning 3 Great Northern Diver, 1 Red-throated Diver and a possible Black-throated Diver all entered the harbour and 101 Shag were also logged flying in, which is the exact same total as yesterday. There were 3 Black-necked Grebe in Brands Bay this afternoon and this evening 2 Short-eared Owls were seen out around the mouth of the Frome, Arne Moors and Swineham point area. There seems to be quite a few Sandwich Tern still about with 1 in Brands Bay today, 2 off Poole Quay and 4+ in Poole Park mid-afternoon. In Middlebere raptors included a Goshawk again, 2 Marsh Harrier and a Merlin. In the Wareham Channel 2 Great White Egret were on the Keysworth shoreline and in Lytchett Bay there were 2 Great Northern Diver this afternoon and the Common Scoter was still present.

Avocet and Black-tailed Godwit – Holes Bay – Martin Adams

The dunes at Studland always look so good for so many species….Shore Lark, Snow Bunting, Great Grey Shrike and Twite to name a few. Given our location on the south coast it’s no surprise we don’t see too many of these species here, especially Twite and Shore Lark, both of which would be well celebrated by local birders should a couple arrive and settle there. Of course the recent Snow Bunting on Studland Beach highlighted the dunes can attract in these ‘northern’ visitors but they’re scarce, and the last Great Grey Shrike at Studland was in 2016. Another species the dunes at Studland always look good for is Short-eared Owl, and tonight one was seen hunting briefly at the back (eastern) edge of Little Sea. This whole area potentially holds or sees many a good bird settle of pass through here, but it’s an amazingly under watched area, especially during the winter and peak migration times. There are definitely birds to be found along the Studland Dunes with decent historic finds including Pallas’s Warbler (1999), Arctic Redpoll (1996), Lapland Bunting (multiple) and Little Swift (1981)! Todays wind certainly got some birds seeking shelter with an amazing 3 Great Northern Diver in Lytchett Bay along with the Common Scoter still, giving a scene more akin to Studland Bay rather than a shallow bay in north urban Poole. The Great Grey Shrike was at Morden Bog again near decoy pond and the White-tailed Eagle pair were chilling in the Wareham Channel. Winter thrush passage has been incredibly light so far this autumn with only a couple of mornings seeing a few hundred Redwing and Fieldfare arrive in during October and November. Therefore it’s almost celebratory when the high pitched call of a Redwing can be heard passing overhead currently with small groups of only 10-20 moving about the harbour at the moment.

Busy Holes Bay, mainly Wigeon – Martin Adams

Wow! Some calm weather. The last few days has seen a blasting westerly hit the harbour, but today saw first decent calm spell settle things down, making for a stunningly beautiful set of conditions to observe and ‘bird’ the harbour. It started off at dawn with an estimated c31,000 Wood Pigeon moving off high SW. Although the Wood Pigeon migration date is more typically around November 5th, it was good to see a late push go for it in near perfect conditions. A dawn watch from Shipstal Point, RSPB Arne saw the Forster’s Tern active in the upper Middlebere Channel with 5 Great Northern Diver logged out in central harbour along with 5 Goldeneye and 25 Spoonbill art Shipstal plus 3 Brambling and a few Lesser Redpoll over, plus 2 Cattle Egret and a Great White Egret over west. In Stoborough, 19 Cattle Egret passed over at dawn along with 1 Great White Egret, 4 Brambling, 1 Merlin, 2 Marsh Harrier and 65 Fieldfare. The Snow Bunting was showing well for birders at Studland Beach, still at the beach end of the nudist entrance track. There was a great record of a Razorbill in Holes Bay SE (perhaps the first Holes Bay record), just opposite the train station, about 100 yards north along the cycle track. From our Winter Safari Cruise this afternoon it was a stunning winter scene with 3 Eider off the Brownsea north shore, 9-10 Great Northern Diver spread across the area, 2 Red-throated Diver, in central harbour, 1 Common Scoter off Jerry’s Point, 10 Spoonbill off Gold Point, RSPB Arne, 4-5 Marsh Harrier at Swineham, 3-4 Great White Egret in the Wareham Channel and still lots of Avocet spread across the Brownsea Lagoon and the Wareham Channel. This morning 101 Shag were logged entering the harbour the harbour entrance with 5 Red-breasted Merganser. There are now loads of Great Crested Grebe back with 34 in the Brands Bay area and a minimum of 37 out in central harbour. There was a Short-eared Owl at Swineham this afternoon and a Great Grey Shrike was at Morden Bog about 3pm. It will be interesting to see if it’s wearing a leg ring, considering one was ringed at Lytchett Bay a few days ago. However, we seem to remember that one of the last Great Grey Shrikes that visited Morden Bog, back in about 2020, also had a leg ring, and that definitely wasn’t ringed at Lytchett Bay!!

Cattle Egret – Middlebere – Mark Wright

Great White Egret – Middlebere – Kate Plater

Another quite blustery day out in the harbour today but lots of nice birds around nonetheless with 5 Marsh Harrier soaring around Swineham and Keysworth shorelines from our school bird boat this morning. The juv/female Common Scoter is still sticking around in Lytchett bay having been present for over a week now. 10 Spoonbill also dropped into Lytchett Bay this afternoon. Numbers of Wigeon are building up really strongly in the harbour with 1055 logged in Holes Bay today as well as 333 Teal, 26 Pintail, 1035 Black-tailed Godwit, 43 Avocet, 2 Spotted Redshank and 13 Common Snipe. 

Brands Bay on the rising tide this afternoon had 2 Great Northern Diver, 1 Black-necked Grebe, 1 Common Scoter, 15 Red-breasted Merganser, 154 Pintail, 4 Bar-tailed Godwit and 19 Knot. The Snow Bunting was still present in the sand dunes at Studland today and 1 White-tailed Eagle was seen flying over Morden this afternoon.

Avocet – Middlebere – Pete Corbin

A quite chilly SW wind was whipping across the area today making viewing quite challenging, but tucked away in the sand dunes at Studland, the Snow Bunting showed on and off, as it played hide and seek for a few hours as it disappeared intermittently. It was favouring the section of beach on the edge of the dunes, 250m north of where the track leads on to the nudist beach. Without doubt the best bird of the day was a fly over Twite at Branksome Dene, found (heard) by Nick Hopper, which was with a small flock of Linnet as it headed west. This is the first harbour record since 1983 and to put into context how rare they are in the harbour, there have been almost as many Long-billed Dowitcher in Poole Harbour as there have been Twite! The Forster’s Tern was seen off Shipstal Beach, RSPB Arne again yesterday and this morning both White-tailed Eagles were in the Wareham Channel. At Lytchett Bay there were 3 Water Pipit with at least 1 which was colour-ringed.

Snow Bunting – Studland Beach – Nick Hopper

Well, you couldn’t blame people for totally writing off today when pulling back the curtains, as driving rain and strong wind pummelled the harbour all morning. Then by stroke of luck, at lunch time, the rain pushed through and the wind disappeared just as our Winter Safari Cruise got underway, where our group were treated to a mouth watering range of birds during the course of the afternoon. There were an incredible 11 Great Northern Diver spread across the harbour (4 central harbour, 3 Wareham Channel, 4 Jerry’s Point) including an adult in near full breeding plumage. Also logged was 1 Red-throated Diver in central harbour, 4 Great White Egret (1 Arne Bay, 3 Swineham), 1 Cattle Egret at Swineham, great view of female White-tailed Eagle G466 flying along Keysworth, 5 Marsh Harrier, c15 Bearded Tit feeding on the edge of the reed bed just meters off the side of the boat, c400 Black-tailed Godwit flying overhead as they moved up and down the Frome Valley, c300 Avocet spread between the Wareham Channel and Brownsea Lagoon, 5 Spoonbill with 2 feeding off the side of the boat in the Wareham Channel, 3 Kingfisher (1 Swineham, 1 Brownsea, 1 Furzey slipway), 1 female type Goldeneye off Goathorn, 8 Red-breasted Merganser (South Deep) and c300 sinensis Cormorant moving around in a feeding pack. When you add to all that, the decent numbers of Wigeon, Teal, Curlew, Dunlin, Oystercatcher and other regular wintering species it was a classic early winter spectacle. Full Winter Safari trip list can be seen HERE. There was some reward for braving the grot this AM when James Leaver found a Snow Bunting on Studland Beach in the driving wind and rain. It remained all day on the beach at the end of the track that leads to the nudist beach. Apparently (only) wellies must be worn! There was a decent evening roost in Brands Bay with 36 Great Crested Grebe, 2 Black-necked Grebe and 22 Red-breasted Merganser and today the first three figure count of Pintail was logged with 137 also in Brands Bay. In Lytchett Bay both the recent Common Scoter and a storm driven Great Northern Diver were both in the bay, highlighting just how stormy it’s been recently as both species are incredibly rare in the Lytchett Bay area. 15 Marsh Harrier were around the west harbour roost this evening and an a Hen Harrier was seen over Keysworth.

Bearded Tit from this afternoons Winter Safari Cruise – Swineham Point – John Thorpe

Red-throated Diver from this afternoons Winter Safari Cruise – Central Harbour – John Thorpe

Snow Bunting – Studland Beach – Rob Johnson