Heading out for a morning survey of the harbour showed just how productive it is for birding at the moment. The highlight was the returning Forster’s Tern hunting along the Holton shoreline, with c.150 Common Tern and 200 Sandwhich Tern across the harbour and the Brownsea Lagoon. The lagoon was otherwise productive with 11 Avocet, including 2 juveniles which are still doing well, 1 Bar-tailed Godwit, c.70 Oystercatcher, 1 Dark-bellied Brent Goose, 11 Dunlin, and 1 Turnstone on the beach. On the North Brownsea shoreline, there were also 4 Common Sandpiper. In the Wareham Channel 2 White-tailed Eagle was sat on Shag Looe spit, 1 Osprey and 2 Marsh Harrier adding to the raptor list, as well as 5 Whimbrel, 5 Lapwing and 500 Black-tailed Godwit. Further along at the mouth of the Frome, 4 Spotted Redshank and 5 Greenshank were amongst the 25 Common Redshank making the most of the exposed mudflat, along with 4 Common Sandpiper on the fringes of the reedbed and 4 Water Rail including 2 young. Additionally there was 1 Yellow Wagtail present on a reedhead also at the mouth of the Frome. Of note on the scrapes at Swineham was 1 Green Sandpiper, 9 Egyptian Geese and 2 Yellow-legged Gull, with c.100 Sand Martin roosting in the reeds. Another Osprey was seen over in Wytch Lake, and a further 5 Whimbrel were present in Ower Bay, and c.150 Curlew across the whole harbour on the low tide. There was 1 Great White Egret in the Middlebere Channel this morning. On the Osprey nest, there was more excitement as another chick (5H4) fledged this afternoon.

Great White Egret (right) next to Little Egret – Middlebere Channel – Kate Plater

July is really picking up now, and with first Grasshopper Warblers, Garden Warblers and Willow Warblers already being ringed at Durlston yesterday, the autumn floodgates will soon be well and truly open. We had a busy Summer Safari Cruise this evening with plenty of highlights including male Osprey 022 with a fish in the Wareham Channel, 1 juv Marsh Harrier in the Frome mouth, 1 distant White-tailed Eagle on the Holton shore, 4 Spotted Redshank, 4 Greenshank and c700 Black-tailed Godwit in the Wareham Channel, 7 Spoonbill, 5 Dunlin and the Avocet family all doing well on the Brownsea Lagoon. At Swineham there was an adult Yellow-legged Gull on the scrapes, a Starling flock of around c400 birds and c200 Sand Martin were gathering in the pre-roost. At the Osprey site today a Hobby flew over the valley, at the Stoborough causeway there were 5 Cattle Egret and there were 4 Whimbrel and 2 Common Sandpiper in Holes Bay.

Finally, we saw the first fledging of the season from one of our Osprey chicks, with the youngest ‘5H3’ being the surprise first youngster to take the leap. He did brilliantly flying around the nest before settling in nearby dead trees for 20 minutes before then expertly returning to the nest and crash landing on top of CJ7! The whole family were back on the nest this evening but no doubt the rest will give flying a go over the next few days. Perhaps we might see an empty nest by the end of the week?!

Not too much to report today other than in Holes Bay there were 2 Common Sandpiper, 1 Whimbrel, 125 Redshank, 122 Black-tailed Godwit and 20 Curlew. At Lytchett Fields this evening 2 Spotted Redshank were out on the fields along with 6 Greenshank, 1 Whimbrel and 1 Marsh Harrier. The Brownsea Lagoon hosted 8 Spoonbill and there were a couple of sightings of White-tailed Eagle in the Wareham Channel. A Hobby was over the Piddle Valley and 75 Little Egret were in the Pergins Island roost this evening in Holes Bay north.

There was also the great news today thats it’s been confirmed by the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation that as a direct result of their White-tailed Eagle reintroduction on the Isle of Wight, eagles are now breeding on the south coast at an undisclosed location, producing 1 chick which has now fledged. This is the first successful breeding of White-tailed Eagle in England for 240 years and marks the start of what we hope will be a full recovery of this species across the country. This is such a monumental achievement and shouldn’t be underestimated how much hard work and expertise goes into these kinds of projects. The other exciting element of this situation is that the new breeding pair are only a year older than the pair that are seemingly holding a territory here in the harbour, male G463 and female G466. With this in mind, there’s a possible chance that our local pair may follow suit and seek to potentially try and breed locally(?) next spring. A huge well done to everyone involved!

White-tailed Eagle chick – Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation

We thought today might be a fledge day for one/some of the Osprey chicks, with several high ‘helicoptering’ motions as they tried to lift off, but to no avail. With settled weather forecast for the rest of the week, there’s no doubt that fledging is imminent, but just when and which one will go first is anyones guess. Today at Lytchett Fields it was busy with waders and saw 96 Common Redshank, 7 Greenshank, 3 Whimbrel, 3 Common Snipe, 1 Common Sandpiper and c15 Lapwing. The site also saw the first post-breeding/fledging Kingfisher of the autumn arrive on site.

With the strong winds due to ease next week, it was another day of holding on to your hats for the most part of the day. So it was a case of making the most of the day which we did from our evening summer cruise with a few highlights including the Wareham Channel Marsh Harrier family active at the top end of the channel with both juveniles on view for a period of time. The Brownsea Lagoon hosted 8 Spoonbill still and the Avocet family are looking great with the 3 chicks well on their way to reaching adulthood all being well. There was also a huge gathering of 2000+ gulls and terns out in central harbour during the evening which were obviously responding to a (newly available?) food source near the surface of the water. Elsewhere there was a Common Sandpiper and juvenile Marsh Harrier at Lytchett Fields, a Whimbrel in Holes Bay and a Common Sandpiper on the Brownsea sea wall. Our trail cams on other Osprey nest platforms logged male Osprey 022 sneaking off during the morning for a quiet meal over at the Middlebere nest platform and this evening new male Osprey ‘374’ was once again seen on a nest platform for about 30 minutes.

Male Osprey 374 on harbour nest platform this evening

Male Osprey 022 on Middlebere nest platform this morning having a quiet breakfast away from the family!

It’s surprising any birds were left in Dorset with a howling wind beating across the county all day, but amazingly, having been absent for 2 months, the Forster’s Tern which first appeared in Lytchett Bay back in April suddenly reappeared at Lytchett Fields this morning. After being seen in Dorset earlier in the year it was then seen to head east with sightings in Hampshire and West Sussex later in the spring. Where it’s been in the mean time is anyones guess, but now it’s back in the harbour, will it stay for several more weeks like it did last time? Another surprise was a Honey Buzzard that was going full pelt with the strong tail wind in an easterly direction high over the Osprey nest in the Piddle Valley. There was also a decent push of Common Swift today over the Frome and Piddle Valley with a conservative count of c200 during the course of the day, along with 2 Hobby. At Middlebere a wader count included 1 Northern Lapwing, 1 Whimbrel, 6 Eurasian Curlew, 168 Black-tailed Godwit, 1 Common Sandpiper, 1 Green Sandpiper and 6 Common Greenshank.

Honey Buzzard – High over Piddle Valley – Terry Mullen

The rain kept birding opportunities pretty limited today. Saying that, having been missing for several days, male Osprey ‘374’ made a surprise appearance on a harbour nest platform mid-morning, looking equally wet and annoyed as the Osprey family on the nest. At Holme lane GP there was 1 Barnacle Goose, 2 Common Sandpiper, 1 Little Ringed Plover, 7 Egyptian Geese and 11 Gadwall and at Lytchett Fields there was a nice spread of waders including 52 Redshank, 32 Black-tailed Godwit, 2 Curlew, 2 Oystercatcher, 1 Greenshank and 1 Green Sandpiper along with the first returning Common Gull of the autumn. This evening the Cattle Egret flock at the Stoborough causeway had grown to 8 today.

A few interesting snippets today including 7 Cattle Egret on Wareham water meadows, all looking like fresh juveniles, including a couple with dark, black bills still. This suggests they’re really young and it could also indicate local breeding? There have been no reports of Cattle Egret all summer around the harbour, and during our Osprey viewing sessions we’ve only logged Little Egrets heading up and down the river valley’s, so they may have bred slightly further afield? There also seemed to be a mini arrival of Marsh Harrier with 2 in Wytch Lake, 1 in Middlebere and another in the Piddle Valley, as well as the local breeding birds in the Wareham Channel. The first returning Common Snipe of the autumn was at Lytchett Fields.

Cattle Egrets – Wareham/Stoborough causeway

Despite the windy weather there were some obvious arrivals today, most notably the first gathering of Spoonbill of the autumn with 8 feeding in the Wareham Channel before relocating to the Brownsea Lagoon this evening. There were also 6 Greenshank new in on the lagoon and the 3 Avocet chicks were still doing well with both parents standing guard. There were 2 Common Sandpiper on the Brownsea sea wall. There was also the first sightings of a fresh juvenile Marsh Harrier in the Wareham Channel as it called to it’s parent near by, with a possible second being seen too. An Osprey (likely male 022) was hunting in the Wareham Channel this evening during our Sunset Safari and earlier today, male 374 was seen briefly on a harbour nest platform. There was a large gathering of Sand Martin at Swineham this evening with c400 flying around and on the Swineham scrape this evening 3 adult Yellow-legged Gull were roosting. The 2 over-summering Eider were off the Brownsea south shore and the over-summering dark-bellied Brent Goose was on the Brownsea Lagoon. The White-tailed Eagle pair were in the Wareham Channel.

Osprey flying past Corfe Castle in Wareham Channel, from Sunset Safari Cruise – Alison Copland