Since the 25th of March I've recorded every night and had some success in recording some very interesting birds flying over my home next to Lytchett Bay, Poole Harbour. Since my last blog on the subject we have had short cold spells with wind coming in from the north and a few nights of heavy wind which isn't very conducive to recording birds at night. Putting the weather aside there were a number of night which added more species to this year's NocMig list.
Its quite odd that you can live under 200m from the nearest water of the bay yet you hardly every see waders flying over our house during the day time. Ok you can certainly hear them so you know they are out there somewhere not too far away. Where I'm situated to the north of the bay most of the wader traffic during daylight hours moves between the fields in the west and to and from Holes Bay to the east which takes them south of my home the other side of the wood which I think kind of acts like a barrier.
Then comes migration time and I then get the waders over at night some can be very close and not that high. Some of these species are not commonly seen in Lytchett Bay others are regular in the winter in varying numbers. My first sound is one of them, Oystercatcher, which at this time of year are at minimum numbers throughout the harbour.
The following recording are probably fine to listen to without a headset as they were all close to the recorder but you might need to adjust your volume to suit the recordings.
On the night of the 28th/29th April the wind changed and there must have been a good migration night as I added three new species for the year to my nocturnal recording list. The first was this Ringed Plover on the 28th which I had several going over during the night but this one passed by the closest. (You might need to up your volume for this one).
The follow two species both flew over in the early morning of the 29th April. The first of these was a Dunlin, a species that I have recorded a number of times since I started recording birds at night in 2012 but none have every come so close before.
The next species is one that we may see occasionally in the winter out in Lytchett bay but it certainly isn't guaranteed and I recorded at least three passing over in a couple of nights and all three were fairly close but the one you're going to hear is one that called twice or maybe it was two different individuals. They sound a little Whimbrel like but have the 'tip tip tip' before the trill Whimbrel just trill.
The last species I'm going to share with you in this blog was a total surprise in that I hadn't expected to record them as Avocet had already left the harbour and migrated to their breeding grounds. So where these birds had come from and where they were going is a bit of a mystery.
Hope you have enjoyed listening to the sounds and finding out about a few of the waders and nocturnal birds that pass over Lytchett Bay at night.
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