Poole Park - 31st January

The weather was cloudy and windy with a little rain. Highlights were Cattle Egret, Brambling, Bewick’s Swans, Goldeneye and a Kingfisher.

The afternoon had been forecast with rain, but we were lucky enough to miss just about all of it. There was only one car load os us today, so we decided to stop in at Blashford Lakes on the way to see if we could see the Bittern that had been outside one of the hides. No luck – the Bittern didn’t show, but we did see Gadwall, Tufted Duck and Pochard from the hide and Tracy spotted a Brambling feeding with the Chaffinch and Siskin around the feeders.
We then stopped briefly to see 6 Bewick’s Swan with the many Mute Swan and Lapwing at Ibsley Bridge. We were on a roll and a couple of miles up the road we stopped where a Cattle Egret has spent the last few weeks and got great views of it. We then drove on to Poole Park.
There were few waders on the estuary just a couple of Redshank and, on the recreation field, several Oystercatcher. A scan through the gulls revealed just Black-headed Gull, a Common Gull and some Great Black-backed. We walked through to the park itself which has a large boating lake. There were many more gulls here, but all Black-headed and Herring Gulls. There were many Goldeneye dotted about on the lake. We counted up to 20 and on our walk round got great views and even saw a couple of males throwing their heads back in display to a female. Tracy spotted a Kingfisher whiz past and there were a few Turnstone and a small flock of Redshank that flew by. There was also a solitary male Red-breasted Merganser on the lake. After a warming coffee in the café we walked back to the cars and drove to Hatch Pond for dusk. A Bittern has spent the winter in the reeds of this small urban nature reserve and we hoped to see it. There were Mallards, Tufted Duck and Great-crested Grebe on the lake and Moorhen creeping around the reeds. We waited – Water Rails called and a Cetti’s Warbler sang. However our second attempt for Bittern today did not give us the goods – no Bittern was seen. However we had had a great afternoon and recorded 63 species.
Simon Curson