Despite the early morning fog there was plenty of excitement over the course of the day, concluding with our female Osprey ‘CJ7’ returning this evening at 18:28. The other female 1H1, who’s been getting a bit too comfortable with 022 over the last 24 hours was soon put out of her place and of all things, decided to take her grievances out on 022 by chasing him off of the nest, not before having a minor pop at CJ7 for ruining the party. This is good news for multiple reasons as it means our resident pair are now back and will hopefully go on to have another successful season, plus we now have another female who’s ‘very keen’ to breed locally, so if our ‘spare’ male 374 arrives back over the coming week, it could be game on. No doubt CJ7 and 022 will return to the nest tomorrow morning and start nest building together and re-building their bond, with lots of mating no doubt.

There was also another Osprey around at lunchtime which wouldn’t have been CJ7 as she would have landed on the nest then, but we are wondering if that could have been 374 coming in for a sneaky peek to see what was happening at the nest site. No doubt more excitement and drama will unford in the comings days.

Elsewhere the Forster’s Tern was giving great views off Shipstal Beach, RSPB Arne, and we managed to see it brilliantly from our Spring Safari cruise this afternoon sat on a channel marker. There was a short passage of Red Kite this afternoon with 5 drifting over Swineham Point, north over a period of 5 minutes whilst 3 Marsh Harrier were quartering over Giggers Island. There were up to 5 White-tailed Eagle in and around Arne/Wareham Channel this morning with both adults cruising into the Wareham Channel this afternoon. There were still 4 Spoonbill in Middlebere, a single Swallow dashed through across the mouth of the Wareham Channel with another off Middlebere, a few Red-breasted Merganser and dark-bellied Brent Geese remain and a decent count of c1000 Black-tailed Godwit were feeding off Swineham Point. At Holmebride there were still up to 24 Cattle Egret feeding and a Barnacle Goose was on the floods. A Willow Warbler was singing at Swineham, Blackcaps were singing at the PCW Drain and finally a Bonaparte’s Gull was reported at Swineham this morning, as was a Little Gull a few hours before.

Forster’s Tern – Shipstal Beach, RSPB Arne – David Ward

Forster’s Tern – Shipstal Beach, RSPB Arne – David Ward

Forster’s Tern – Spring Safari Cruise this afternoon – Aiken Lau

Forster’s Tern – Spring Safari Cruise this afternoon – Carolyn Hancocks

Eurasian Curlew – Spring Safari Cruise this afternoon – Carolyn Hancocks

CJ7, 022 and 1H1 having an awkward moment upon CJ7’s arrival back at 18:30

Female Osprey 1H1 having a pop at CJ7 for ruining the party before chasing off 022 in a rage!