Today was a tale of two halves. A foggy half and a non-foggy half. Thankfully our Spring Safari Cruise was this morning with blissful sunshine for the majority of the trip and a stack of great birds. A /the Long-tailed Duck was out in central harbour with Red-breasted Merganser and off Shipstal a male Goshawk passed over, likely the male from the Arne pair. In the Wareham Channel 4 White-tailed Eagles were present including female G466 sat on a post, plus a Hen Harrier was quartering across Keysworth, and then over Swineham Point, with Peregrines also seen hunting over Lytchett Bay and Swineham. A 1st winter Little Gull was seen bouncing over Swineham GP (and is likely to be yesterdays reported Bonaparte’s Gull at that site) and there was also a Red Kite high above the channel. Up to c500 Black-tailed Godwit were still feeding on the edge of the Wareham Channel and a flock of 31 Common Snipe were flushed from the Piddle Valley by a Marsh Harrier. In the Lower Piddle Valley up to 7 Little Ringed Plover were on the floods, a single Spoonbill was on Shipstal Point and there were 2 Spotted Redshank and a single Cattle Egret in Lytchett Bay.

With female Osprey CJ7 arriving back yesterday, we thought things would sort them selves out today, but the new intruding female didn’t give up easily, visiting the nest site several times today, and followed male 022 around the harbour for parts of the day. Hopefully she’ll get the message soon and bump into our other male 374 at some point in the next few weeks!

Female White-tailed Eagle G466 – Wareham Channel from Spring Safari Cruise this AM – Dave Ward