Poole Harbour

Poole Harbour is a bar-built estuary of nearly 4,000 ha located on the coast of Dorset in southern England. The Harbour occupies a shallow depression towards the south-western extremity of the Hampshire Basin which has flooded over the last 5,000 years as a result of rising sea levels. The unusual micro-tidal regime means that a significant body of water is retained throughout the tidal cycle. The Harbour therefore exhibits many of the characteristics of a lagoon. There are extensive intertidal mud-flats and, away from the north shore that has become urbanised through the growth of the town of Poole, there are fringes of saltmarsh and reedbed. As a whole, the Harbour supports important numbers of waterbirds in winter and is also an important breeding site for terns and gulls, whilst significant numbers of Little Egret Egretta garzetta and Aquatic Warbler Acrocephalus paludicola occur on passage. Several river valleys converge on the Harbour, notably the Frome and the Piddle, and these support grazing marsh that contribute to the importance of the SPA for wintering waterbirds. Parts of the Harbour, especially along the western and southern shores, adjoin the Dorset Heathlands SPA. Where the two areas meet, there are unusual transitions from saltmarsh and reedbed to valley mire and heath habitats. The Harbour is separated from Poole Bay by the Studland Dunes (part of the Dorset Heaths [Purbeck and Wareham] and Studland Dunes SAC) and the SPA includes Littlesea, a large oligotrophic dune-slack lake of importance for wintering wildfowl. 

Qualifying species

For individual species accounts visit the Species Accounts section