With yesterdays mizzle and drizzle it seemed birds were keen to get on the move this morning as the autumns first decent Chiffchaff passage occurred with 40 ringed up on Ballard and certainly 100+ moved through the site, along with Blackcap being more prolific too with 26 ringed. Also moving through Ballard were 16 Willow Warbler, 4 Sedge Warbler, 1 Grasshopper Warbler, 1 Lesser Whitethroat, 2 Wheatear, 5 Tree Pipit, 1 Whinchat and 1 Spotted Flycatcher. At the harbour mouth 3 newly arrived Black Tern were feeding in the gull/tern flock in the tidal race around 8am. There was a late Swift over Stoborough and an early(ish) Merlin over Greenland’s Farm, Studland with 2 Redstart also there. In the Wareham Channel 22 Spoonbill were feeding at dawn and later moved round to Middlebere where there were also 2 Curlew Sandpiper, 1 Spotted Redshank, 3 Knot and 105 Dunlin. Late afternoon early evening saw a Barn Owl and Green Sandpiper over Wareham Moors. At Lytchett Fields a Great White Egret flew over with an Osprey not long after and there were 3 Curlew Sandpiper, 300+ Dunlin, 165 Black-tailed Godwit, 25+ Ringed Plover, 12 Greenshank, 100+ Redshank, 30+ Yellow Wagtail and 1 Peregrine. A single Osprey was in the dead trees at Middlebere and there were 2 Raven and 2 Wheatear on Coombe Heath. Off Shipstal Point Arne a juvenile Arctic Skua was getting mobbed by gulls and the Hooded Crowwas found again in fields near Glebelands (Manor Farm), Studland. A Wood Sandpiper on the Brownsea Lagoon was moderate compensation for the Baird’s Sandpiper not being present for a second day in a row. 

Adult Yellow-legged Gull – Middlebere – Paul Morton