Rare birds to be protected at Poole Harbour

22 January 2019

Rare and endangered birds will be protected with the expansion of a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Dorset, Natural England has said.

A further 1,800 hectares (4,450 acres) of land and sea at Poole Harbour is to be moved into the SSSI.

Its saltmarshes and mudflats are a feeding and breeding ground for seabirds including spoonbills, avocets and black-tailed godwits.

They are all listed on Schedule 1 of The Wildlife and Countryside Act.

Spoonbills are also described as a "very rare breeding bird" in the UK by the RSPB.

Natural England said: "Below the waves, seagrass beds flourish in the shallows while the channels hide the spectacular peacock worm and a rich variety of other marine species including sponges, sea squirts and tube worms."

Emma Rance, marine conservation officer at Dorset Wildlife Trust, said the seagrass beds "provide refuge for juvenile fish and shellfish which become a rich food source for overwintering and roosting seabirds".

More than 4,100 hectares (10,100 acres) of the harbour are already protected within the SSSI.

This SSSI extension connects to heathland as well as marine habitat protected under the Bluebelt programme, including Poole Rocks Marine Conservation Zone (MCZ), and Studland Bay proposed MCZ.

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Rare Semipalmated Sandpiper spotted on Brownsea Island

A tiny bird which wandered up to a Brownsea Island webcam turned out to be an extremely rare visitor from North America.

The Semipalmated Sandpiper caused the UK’s first ever online twitch as bird enthusiasts logged on to see the robin sized visitor.

Eagle-eyed Paul Morton spotted the unusual looking bird through the Brownsea Island lagoon webcam, set up for people to view nesting terns, avocets and waders that flock to the nature reserve to feed.

Founder of the Birds of Poole Harbour education charity, Paul was sat at his desk in Poole when his eyes fell on the tiny wading bird feeding metres away from the camera.

“I was on the phone to a colleague talking to him about the cameras capabilities, when I noticed on my computer monitor a bird I had never seen on the camera before,” he said.

The bird was identified as Poole Harbour’s first ever Semipalmated Sandpiper and only the eighth record for Dorset.

Chris Thain, warden for Dorset Wildlife Trust on Brownsea said: “This is a brilliant find. The Brownsea Lagoon is such a vital area for wintering and migrating birds.”

To watch the webcam live go to birdsofpooleharbour.co.uk/dwt-webcam.

http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/districts/poole/10673921.Rare_sandpiper_spotted_on_Brownsea_Island/

Birds of prey back breeding in Poole harbour

FOR the first time in 50 years a pair of marsh harriers is breeding in Poole Harbour and has produced young.

The birds of prey, the largest of the harriers and once a common site flying over the harbour, are breeding in the reed beds around the Wareham Channel.

In the 1950s the harbour boasted 60 per cent of the entire UK population of breeding Marsh Harrier but by 1963 there were none.

Extinct as a breeding bird in Dorset until 2010, a pioneer pair successfully raised young at an RSPB nature reserve in Weymouth and today the only other pair in the county are at Lodmoor.

It is thought that human intrusion, egg collecting, shooting and flooding were the main causes for their demise 50 years ago with the pesticide DDT causing the final blow.

But with careful habitat man-agement and better protection, the birds are making a remark-able comeback across the whole country and their return has been welcomed in Dorset.

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