Birds of Poole Harbour

For my birthday (which was a few weeks ago) my sister and BiL had bought three tickets for a boat trip organised by the Birds of Poole Harbour Trust, We set off at 2pm. It was a great trip, and our guides were excellent.

We saw Osprey, White Tailed Eagle, Peregrine, Marsh Harrier, Bearded Reedling (or Tit, but they are not of that family), Terns, Gulls, Curlew, Common Seal and Sika Deer, amongst other wildlife. Nothing was close enough to get a decent photo.

In an extra people are looking intently at a far off Scot’s pine on the far shore of the harbour, where a white tailed eagle is perched (a hugely cropped extra).

Poole Harbour is apparently the fourth largest of the world’s natural harbours. Its average depth is one metre, although much of it is shallower than that (and the Wareham Channel is much deeper). It and its surroundings are fantastic for wildlife, and improvements in hand around the RSPB’s Arne peninsular will only make it better. The Osprey and White Tailed Eagle reintroduction programmes (historically both birds bred here before persecution wiped them out) have proved a great success.

Extra - the sun sinking over Holes Bay, the northern extension of the Harbour.