'Birding' Poole Park & Harbour

There was little change in the weather today, and in this part of the county the same could be said for the birds. All that is except for an almost perfect 'summer plumage' specimen of Black-tailed Godwit and the largest 'charm' of Goldfinch this year at Radipole, while at Lodmoor there are now c2 pairs of Oystercatcher, plus singles of Sparrowhawk and Redshank.

'Summer Plumage' Black-tailed Godwit in company with about 2 dozen Common Snipe.

Timing to perfection, there was an opportunity to check out the Overcombe end of the moor for any of the c7 attendant Water Pipit, but none where found before I boarded the Jurassic Coast bus for Poole. Armed with my trusty corned beef banjo, I had decided to look a little further afield today, for a change of birdlife, and give both Poole Park and Holes Bay the once over. Always assured of Greylag Goose in the park, they (c17) were soon found but the hoped for Goldeneye were absent.

Greylag Goose

Only of interest to Julie, Lisa and Me, this old Fir in the park was known by my 2 children as the 'Easy Peasy Tree' because it was so easy to climb. It brought back a few memories, of the heady days of their childhood, as I wandered back to the town. I hope you two are looking in!

A fair, and time consuming, walk to the bay (part of Poole Harbour, the second largest natural harbour in the world) I did contemplate a taxi, but the weather was just too nice. Immediately on arrival there was a Curlew and a Redshank to view and a little further on good numbers of Teal, Shelduck and Redshank plus 2 or 3 Black-tailed Godwit.

The southern section of Holes Bay, the northern part lies beyond the railway line and bridge.

There is a second matching bridge (right out of picture) where I spent a while scoping both the embankment and mud flats, where on the former were c3 Common Sandpiper, c5 Oystercatcher and a Little Egret.

Common Sandpiper

Common Sandpiper

Goldeneye - male above, female below.

In the far distance were a few Goldeneye, which I was able to close by walking round to the start of the Upton Country Park. Here I made the decision to continue walking to Upton village rather than retrace my steps back to Poole. All was well until discovering maintenance work on the boardwalk I climbed into the farmer's field to access the main road to the bus stop. Reaching Overcombe again, the weather took a bit of a dip as temperatures had obviously dropped shrouding the whole of Weymouth Bay, Lodmoor and even some of the town in fog. However, the good news from both Daragh and the Portland Bird Observatory was the start of a passage of migrants, including a Swallow, House Martins, Wheatear, Chiffchaff, Firecrest and Black Redstart plus c4 Garganey flying past the Bill.

The 'Year List' stands at - 118