It was another day of visible passage today, most notably Meadow Pipit, which were migrating on a broad front across the harbour pretty much all day, also with lesser numbers of Swallow. There was an amazing number of Great White Egret in the harbour today too with 7 feeding together in Middlebere, 2 in the Wareham Channel and 1 at Brands Bay. It will be interesting to see if these new ones stay, as Great White Egret tend to depart pretty quickly after their arrival, with only ones and twos opting to over-winter. Up on Hartland there were just 6 Cattle Egret today, and another was at Swineham. On the Brownsea Lagoon 74 Spoonbill were actively feeding this afternoon and this morning there were good numbers of Dunlin (c200) and Ringed Plover (c60) with 4 Greenshank, 1 Grey Plover, 6 Knot, 3 Bar-tailed Godwit and 11 Avocet. In the Wareham Channel 2 Marsh Harrier were quartering over Keysworth and strangely there was a mini passage/movement of Kestrel with 1 in high over Poole Quay and a ‘flock’ of 4 moving over Giggers out towards Keysworth. The Lower Piddle Floods was still holding good birds including, 1 Wood Sandpiper, 1 Ruff, 7 Green Sandpiper, 1 Hobby and 6 Yellow Wagtail. The Curlew Sandpiper and Spotted Redshank were still at Lytchett Fields with a Ruff new in and both White-tailed Eagles were soaring over RSPB Arne, out towards the Wareham Channel. Having been such a heavy feature of the last 2 months, but not so much lately, it was good to have 2 Osprey logged over Brands Bay where there were newly arrived Pintail dropping in and a decent record of 4 Golden Plover, plus, the first 2 dark-bellied Brent Geese of the autumn/winter, although they seemed to circle Brands Bay and then leave again! It’s no surprise, with Holes Bay having been such an important over-wintering site over the last few years that numbers of birds are already beginning to build up with 672 Black-tailed Godwit, 377 Wigeon and 10 Pintail this morning plus plenty of Common Redshank and Teal

Six of the seven Great White Egret in Middlebere this AM – Kate Plater