A stunning first day of October today which got off to a flyer with a great Autumn Safari Cruise this AM. A pristine juvenile Osprey was hunting in the Wareham Channel and flew straight past us, and female White-tailed Eagle G466 lifted off Arne and headed of up the Frome Valley. There were 3 different Marsh Harrier flying around and up on the Swineham floods it was packed with Teal, Shoveler, decent numbers of Curlew Lapwing and Black-tailed Godwit and 3 surprise Ruff. A Cattle Egret also flew straight over the boat at Swineham and a Great White Egret was at Shipstal Beach, Arne. The Brownsea Lagoon looked great too with 21 Sanderling on the beach, c55 Spoonbill on the lagoon with 2 Greenshank, c40 Avocet, c20 Ringed Plover, c30 Dunlin and 10 Sandwich Tern. We also encountered 4 Kingfisher (2 Poole Quay, 1 Swineham and 1 Brownsea) and Bearded Tit were calling in reeds off Swineham Point. Elsewhere the Forster’s Tern was in Holes Bay NW again this evening, 8 Cattle Egret were at Holmebridge, c80 Common Chiffchaff were in the PCW Drain, 2 Spotted Redshank were at Lytchett Fields at a Great White Egret was in Lytchett Bay. There were 2 Osprey hunting in Middlebere this AM and one of the White-tailed Eagles also flew up the channel. There was another big push of hirundines today with large numbers of Swallow and House Martin spread across the sky-scape. At the Carey Secret Garden Ringing Station today it was mostly House Martin and Chiffchaff ringed, but there was also late singles of Grasshopper Warbler and Common Whitethroat also ringed. We’re now also entering peak Stonechat passage, with gorse bushes and barbed wire fences around the harbour hosting multiple birds, with a minimum of 20 up on Ballard this morning and 15 at Greenlands Farm.

Stonechat – Middlebere