With the partial eclipse of the sun
on the 20 Mar, there has been a close alignment of the sun & moon.
The result is there has been incredible set of strong tides over the
last few days. With
the size of Poole Harbour, holding such a large body of water, there is
a lag in time the water takes to leave the harbour & so the low
tides never get down to a low tide of 0 metres. Looking at tide tables over the last few years, I don't ever remember the lowest tide at the harbour mouth ever getting lower than 0.3 metres in the tide tables. But this weekend, the lowest tide was a mere 0.06 metres. Correspondingly, there has been the highest tides I've seen in Brands Bay.
Low tide at Brands Bay: (21 Mar 15)
In
the last couple of weekends, I have neglected the South Haven part of
Studland, in favour of looking for early Black Redstarts &
Wheatears in the Old Harry & Greenlands Farm parts of the patch. So this weekend I planned to spend some time at South Haven.
The Saturday was fairly uneventful, except for a light Northerly wind
which produced a small Northerly Visable Migration (Vis Mig) of mainly
Finches across the harbour mouth. Birds like to
fly into the wind at low level as they gain lift, which is the same
reason that areoplanes pilots prefer to take off into the wind. The highlights
were 50 Chaffinches, 5 Meadow Pipits, 2 Bullfinches and singles of
Goldfinch, Siskin, Linnet, Reed Bunting & Pied Wagtail. This would
be a quiet half hour in the peak Vis Mig month of October, but was good
for an early Spring day. There were also 4 Long-tailed Tits that tried
on several times to get across the harbour mouth, but despite calling a
lot to egg each other on, they never got more than 20 or 30 metres
before giving up.
Low tide at Brands Bay: The circular marks aren't a type of
marine crop circles, but they are the after effect of the damage that
shellfish boats do to the seabed as they spin around & around. They
aren't allowed in the inner part of Brands Bay, but some of the boats
ignore the rules (21 Mar 15)
Given the Saturday Vis Mig, I decided to give it another go on the Sunday morning, but the news was there didn't seem to be anything on the move before I arrived. I ran into local Birder, Steve Morrison, who spurred on by my news that the Stanpit Birders had seen five Garganey's that morning was tempted to join me to
check the South Haven pool. We spent some time checking the pool, but no
joy. Then a very large, bulky Accipter flew low over the pool about
30-40 metres from us. This caused panic alarm calls from the local
Carrion Crows, which did nothing to fly up and challenge it. We both
noted the very large, bulky appearance, deep based wings & long
tail. It was larger than the largest Sparrowhawk I've seen. I took it
the four or so distinct dark bars on the uppertail, whilst Steve got
onto the streaky breast. In less than 30 seconds it had disappeared out
of sight. Five minutes later it flew back low over the pool, reinforcing
my impressions of the first view & causes the same disapproving
alarm calls from the Carrion Crows. As it disappeared, I shouted to
alert Steve, who was now on higher ground at the edge of the dunes. He
picked it up, as it turned North & out over the harbour mouth and
then Brownsea. Going back over the views, we were fairly certain it had
to be a male Goshawk: a surprisingly rare Bird in Dorset. I suggested we
head back & doublecheck Killian's Collins guide in the car. This
confirmed the streaking indicating it was a first winter individual & the size made it a male:a Poole Harbour Tick.
News went out at this point on the local Birders email, but I didn't
make any further attempt to ring the news out as it was already long
gone. So no Finch Vis Mig, yet proof that a Vis Mig watch on an
apparently dead day, might still be worthwhile on other days. I have always been
sceptical about a number of single observer Goshawk claims in
Poole Harbour, given the observer's beliefs that they are commoner
locally than they are. I have always thought they are at best a rare
species which is a short distance migrant or wandering species within the UK. I was pleased to
have had Steve with me, given the Canon 7D was in the car & the
SX60 isn't a good camera for reacting quickly for action shots.
Coot:
No chance of Goshawk, so I will have to fill this Post up with the news the Coot (my only February patch tick) is still at South Haven
After
a celebratory coffee, we decided we should try the Eastern Lake as
clearly the Garganey would be there. It's a longer walk from South
Haven, but there was the chance the Redpolls that had eluded me all
year, might be back in the area: but no joy. However, as we got close to the
Eastern Lake, we put up a Jack Snipe from a small wet patch. Although,
it looked to come down fairly close to us, it landed out of view. So no
chance for more views. This was the second totally unexpected species
for the day. Jack Snipe is a very scarce, but overlooked, species at
Studland with my only other sighting being three in Brands Bay on 8 Jan 10
during a hard Winter spell. To top off the morning, the Great White
Egret was on the Eastern Lake again. Hopefully, it will remain for our
final WeBS count this coming weekend.
Finally some high tide pictures from Brands Bay
Even on the highest of normal tides, there are a line of islands dividing the inner bay in two (from left to right): Not today
So unfortunately, no photographs of the two patch goodies from the weekend. I had hoped to get to 130 by the end of March for the Studland/Ballard Year List. These two goodies got me to the 130 mark, without managing to see any early Hirundines, Blackcaps or the elusive Redpoll. There is still a final weekend, when I might get past the March target. There is only fifty species more to reach my end of the year target.
