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