As we enter the latter phase of April, migration should be well underway, and the dawn held some promise at least. However, by lunch time it reverted back to being like a cold December Day with a strong WNW wind and heavy rain! The day started off well with a nice log of common migrants up on Ballard including 4 Yellow Wagtail, 3 Tree Pipit, 1 Lesser Whitethroat and 12 Willow Warbler. Later in the morning a Wood Warbler was found singing in a small patch of wood on the edge of Hartland Moor, close to Scotland Farm. In the Lower Piddle Valley this evening , just north of Swineham GP there were 2 Ruff, 3 Spotted Redshank, 5 Greenshank, 4 Dunlin, 10+ Redshank and 4 Lapwing and there was a single Bar-tailed Godwit on mud near the Stilt Pools. On Swineham GP it’s self 2 full summer plumaged Black-necked Grebe was a surprise find. An Osprey carrying a fish was seen over Wareham, which was likely to be male 022 and the White-tailed Eagle pair were circling over the Wareham Channel this morning. The Forster’s Tern was seen off Upton CP in Holes Bay NW this afternoon and a Common Sandpiper and 5 Reed Warbler were also in Holes Bay north.

Finally, we didn’t get a chance to include this news in yesterdays sightings as we’d already written the entry by the time it had happened, however, at 19:15 yesterday evening, our Osprey pair gave us all a massive surprise by laying a 4th egg. This is fantastic news and a scarce occurrence for Ospreys. Whether all 4 hatch is a different matter and we’ll just have to wait and see. If they do then 022 will have his work cut out for him and the nest could become rather crowded by mid-June!!!

Female Osprey CJ7 revealing her surprise 4th egg yesterday evening