With the busyness of August bank holiday over with and the roads now a little more easy going, venturing from A to B around the harbour is a bit more bearable! A quick morning dash over to Ballard (from Poole) which would have been rather long winded just two days ago, was in fact a quick and swift process allowing us to squeeze in some birding along the way. Along the Ballard ridge there were 3 Redstart, 1 Whinchat, 3 Whitethroat, c15 Yellow Wagtail, c10 Chiffchaff, 7 Yellowhammer and the Hooded Crow.  On Lytchett Fields there was finally a ‘twitchable’ Wood Sandpiper along with 2 Ruff, 25+ Ringed Plover, 180+ Dunlin, 60+ Black-tailed Godwit, 8 Greenshank and 10+ Yellow Wagtail. At Arne 29 Spoonbill were in Middlebere with 1 Great White Egret, 3 Osprey and a flock of 30+ Yellow Wagtail moving between farm fields on then opposite side of the channel. Yellow Wagtail are pretty prominent around numerous farm fields at the moment, simply look around the feet of cattle out in the farm fields and listen out for their sweet, high pitched descending call and you should be able to locate them pretty easily. Yesterday evening a juvenile Marsh Harrier was giving one of our Osprey juvs a torrid time, chasing and harassing LS0 looking as if it wanted a piece of the fish he was carrying. 

Great White Egret with Little Egrets – Middlebere – Ian Brown

Osprey – Middlebere – Ian Brown

Spoonbill flock – Middlebere – Ian Brown