A day full of beautiful weather and birds. Lots to talk about, firstly a Whooper Swan was seen entering the harbour entrance at dawn, and was then seen a short while later in Middlebere. This is a great early October record, with most passage Whooper Swan records occurring during the latter part of October. Arriving with the swan were the winters first 4 Red-breasted Mergansers which were off the Brownsea southern shore (South Deep) along with 8 Great Crested Grebe and 7 dark-bellied Brent Geese were on ‘Stoney Island’ on the low tide near the harbour entrance. On the falling tide this afternoon 66 Spoonbill remained faithful to Brownsea as did c100 Avocet. In the Frome Valley 12 Cattle Egret were between Holmebridge and East Stoke. Female White-tailed Eagle G801 was active in the Wareham Channel this AM, and was joined by 3-year old G318 who then lured her away to north Dorset later afternoon! This morning for our Bearded Tit ringing demo 15 Bearded Tit were ringed in total along with 5 Cetti’s Warbler. In Middlebere there were still 8 Spotted Redshank and c300 Avocet. At Lytchett Fields there were 7 Curlew Sandpiper on the rising tide with 1 Little Stint. A nice variety of different plumaged Marsh Harriers were on show around the Wareham Channel, Middlebere, Lytchett Bay and Arne area.

Whooper Swan – Middlebere – Mark Wright (Twitter – @markwright12002)