Steady today with a good mix right across the harbour. Starting off on the urban side of the harbour in Holes Bay NE where Wigeon almost peaked at 100 although not quite with 97 out on the water, also 30 Curlew, 49 Redshank, 3 Dunlin, 14 Little Egret but only 63 Black-tailed Godwit feeding until c200 arrived in with the rising tide. In the Middlebere channel today there were 80 Avocet, 40 Dunlin, 125 Black-tailed Godwit, 28 Redshank, 1 Ringed Plover, 1 male Marsh Harrier and 1 juvenile, 6 Little Egret and 1 Greenshank. On the Brownsea Lagoon there were 4+ Curlew Sandpiper and Osprey sightings today came from Lytchett Bay (2), the Wareham Channel (1) and Middlebere (1).

Late news from Middlebere yesterday saw 43 Avocet, 5 Bar-tailed Godwit, c200 Black-tailed Godwit, 1 Curlew, 20 Dunlin, 6 Greenshank, 1 Green Sandpiper, 4 Knot, 1 Ringed Plover, 5 Spotted Redshank, 30 Redshank.

Wheatear – Middlebere

For a Monday, there were a good range of sightings today spread right across the harbour. The Brownsea Lagoon was busy and saw c400 Dunlin, c90 Redshank, 29 Spoonbill, c80 Ringed Plover, c400 Oystercatcher, 15 Sanderling, 17 Knot, 9 Greenshank, 2 Spotted Redshank, 13 Curlew, 2+ Curlew Sandpiper, 5 Avocet and 15 Shoveler. Holes Bay NE looked good on the low-tide this AM and saw 83 Wigeon, 2 Pintail, 1 Common Sandpiper, 500+ Black-tailed Godwit and 40+ Redshank. There was a green surprise at Lytchett Bay with a Ring-necked Parakeet flying around French’s Farm, also a Woodlark flew over Lytchett Fields where there was also 3 Ruff, 2 Wheatear, 1 Whinchat and a good raptor mix of 2 Osprey, 1 Peregrine, 2 Marsh Harrier, 2 Hobby and 1 Kestrel. Osprey sightings increased today with sightings of 2 over the Rockley area, 1 out over the Wareham Channel and 1 at Middlebere. Also at Middlebere were c300 Black-tailed Godwit, 70 Avocet, 1 Hobby and 1 Marsh Harrier. An arrival of c100 sinensis Cormorant was witnessed over Lytchett Bay, a sight we’ll see more of as September progresses with the Poole Harbour flock often reaching c700 individuals by October. Finally, some exciting news in that it seems a juvenile White-tailed Sea Eagle flew over Wareham mid-morning heading towards Wareham Forest. Sadly it was only seen by one observer but we’re hoping to get some info from the Roy Dennis Wildlife foundation to see if it’s any of the birds from their reintroduction.

Hobby – Slepe Heath

Meadow Pipit – Hartland Moor

Autumn (to winter) ramped up a notch today with reports that the first skeins of Pink-footed Geese were arriving along the NE coast and the first American wader of the season was tracked down at Kimmeridge in the shape of a gorgeous juvenile Pectoral Sandpiper. These milestones were equalled by a sad fact that it seems that quite a few of the recent Osprey seemed to move on either yesterday afternoon or first thing this AM with only single sightings of birds at Middlebere, Lytchett Bay and a couple of sightings in the Wareham Channel. The chill in the air this AM certainly made it feel like change is coming and the fact the harbour now has even more Pintail and Wigeon highlights this. A ringing session in the west of the harbour in the lower Piddle Valley produced 1 adult male Redstart, 2 Tree Pipit, 1 Grasshopper Warbler, 3 Blackcap, 1 Cetti’s Warbler, 9 Chiffchaff and 1 Willow Warbler. At Swineham GP and on the scrapes there was 1 Hobby, 1 Cattle Egret, 136 Coot, 14 Gadwall, 13 Little Egret (on the pit island), 14 Lapwing, 1 adult Yellow-legged Gull and 1 Black-tailed Godwit with 3 different Marsh Harrier around too. At a low-tide Baiter there were good counts of 28 Oystercatcher, 1 juv Greenshank, 11 Turnstone, 23 Ringed Plover, 1 Tree Pipit (over) 2 Yellow Wagtail and 116 Starling. Lytchett Bay saw 316 Teal, 4 Wigeon, 6 Knot, 2 Spotted Redshank and 1 Yellow-legged Gull. Holes Bay NE had 98 Redshank, 2 Pintail, 775 Black-tailed Godwit, 1 Kingfisher, 1 Water Rail, 53 Wigeon and 83 Teal. In the Wareham Channel from our Osprey watch point 19 Spoonbill were feeding on the low-tide. There were 2 Hobby over Middlebere.

Common Redstart – Lower Piddle

Another really busy day and another great Osprey day, with a max count of 4 over Lytchett Bay and birds seen out over the Wareham Channel, Middlebere, Hamworthy and 1 was seen again in Brands Bay. At Lytchett Fields there was 1 Curlew Sandpiper, 2 Ruff, 1 Spotted Flycatcher, 1 Whinchat, 1 Wheatear and 1 Hobby. In Brands Bay 150 Black-tailed Godwit were feeding along with c120 Dunlin, 80 Redshank, 41 Great Crested Grebe, 60 Curlew and 11 Little Egret. In Middlebere a group of 46 Avocet were regularly ‘duffing up’ any passing Osprey with 2 hunting together mid-afternoon in the Wytch Channel area. Middlebere saw 2 different Marsh Harrier including a gorgeous juvenile at close range. In Holes north Black-tailed Godwit numbers peaked at 980 with 78 Wigeon, 1 Shoveler and 35 Redshank.

Shoveler – Holes Bay – Rene Goad

It was really autumnal across the harbour today with a real sense of coming and going. We’re currently in that amazing transition period of birds moving through in all directions, pit-stopping off in the harbour before then moving on again, or, as we experienced this AM, birds making landfall for the winter having probably commuted several hundred miles. The harbour today was quite literally a sheer delight. Highlights included 3-4 Osprey with most sightings around the Lytchett Bay/Holton shoreline with one at Middlebere, one was fishing in the Wareham Channel and one in Brands Bay. At the top end of the Wareham Channel a Ruff was feeding on the mud with 800+ Black-tailed Godwit. In the Lower Frome Valley there was another Ruff and a Wood Sandpiper on pools at Arne Moors (viewed from a boat) and on the Swineham scrapes there were 4 Wigeon and 1 Shoveler. Swineham GP was busy with 1 Pochard, 1 Tufted Duck, 90+ Coot, 5 Wigeon, 10+ Gadwall plus good numbers of Sand Martin, Swallow and House Martin with a single Swift. A small party of Bearded Tit were in the reed beds off Swineham Point and 2 Marsh Harrier were in that area. There were still both a handful of Sandwich and Common Tern feeding and a group of 38 Turnstone were on Hamworthy beach. On the Brownsea Lagoon there were 24 Spoonbill, 4 Curlew Sandpiper, 8+ Greenshank, 50+ Ringed Plover, 250+ Dunlin, 20+ Knot, 6 Sanderling, 31 Avocet, 7 Wigeon, 12 Shoveler and 50+ Redshank. In Holes Bay NE Wigeon numbers increased to 73 and there were 2 Common Sandpiper there too. It was also fantastic to witness Wigeon arriving in from the north as a party of 8 came from high above the Frome Valley before settling towards Middlebere. There were a scattering of Wheatear with 4 at Arne and 4 on the Brownsea sea wall. Chiffchaff numbers are really building and are beginning to take over Willow Warbler totals. This evening a new Osprey was seen on the webcam, just before 18:00, this time a juvenile from Scotland. We know this as it had a blue ring on the left leg but frustratingly we couldn’t quite read it. Hopefully it will come back again tomorrow. Other late news included 2 Redstart and 30+ Yellow Wagtail on top of Hartland early this evening and 5 Marsh Harrier out of the west harbour roost this morning.

Spoonbills – Brownsea Lagoon

Redstart – Hartland Moor

Newly arrived juvenile Scottish Osprey – On nest cam

It was a bit quieter today with sightings reported to us, but once again there was no shortage of Osprey seen carry monster sized Mullet over Lytchett Bay and Middlebere, with roughly 3-4 seen today, but the early morning murk didn’t help things too much. A sea watch from Branksome produced a single Arctic Skua and several Gannet. In Holes Bay north there were an impressive 760+ Black-tailed Godwit with 2 Bar-tailed Godwit and an increase of Wigeon to 38 and 2 returning Shoveler. The first Wigeon for Lytchett Bay appeared today too with 10 counted also 2 Ruff on Lytchett fields, 3 Bar-tailed Godwit, 1 Spotted Redshank, 4 Knot and 13 Dunlin.

Osprey – Lytchett Bay – Alison Copland

We’re back. Sorry for the technical glitch over the last couple of days, but you were all out birding anyway, so doubt you even noticed 😉

Back to work (and school) for some today, and with that Bank Holiday over we can now gear our selves up for what the rest of the autumn has in store for us. In August, member of our team set themselves an August target of seeing how many species they could see in that single month. Mark managed a great total of 139, with Paul achieving 131, but looking        at the list of other species logged during August it could have been possible (with a lot of hard work) to see 152 different species! With that in mind, to spice up your birding for September, why not set your self a September challenge? Nothing too series but see if you can break the 100 mark over the next 30 days. Its great fun and certainly gets you out.

Today started off as it has done pretty much every other day over the last couple of weeks with 2-3 Osprey in Lytchett Bay (yawn….boring) and then several more sightings around the Middlebere/Wareham Channel area. We were amazed to see today that one of the juveniles is still being fed on a Scottish nest cam by the adult male, which means there could potentially be still plenty more to come yet! Wigeon numbers continue to build with birds now appearing in Holes Bay NE with 9 present, plus 14 in NW sector and 4-6 Spotted Flycatcher near the Stone Bench at Upton CP. It seems Avocet numbers are also building slowly with 21 in Middlebere this afternoon. A few different Marsh Harrier are kicking about with a gorgeous fresh juvenile in the Middlebere area and 2 Hobby over Slepe Heath. At Lytchett Fields there were 2 Ruff, 1 Spotted Redshank, 2 Knot, 39 Redshank, 4 Greenshank and 2 Ringed Plover        

Newly arrived Wigeon – Holes Bay – Rene Goad