Another eventful day with yesterdays murk melting away over night. It was great to see the Forster’s Tern re-appear this morning with news it had been seen in Middlebere, then off Shipstal point, Arne and then back on the Brownsea Lagoon again by late afternoon. Chances are it just went undetected during yesterdays foul weather. A check of the gull islands this morning for signs of bird flu highlight that for now, all is well, and in fact, the islands currently look well stocked with Mediterranean Gulls. We’ll be out on the morning of May 7th surveying the gull islands under licence, with the aim of establishing a full breeding total for both Black-headed Gull and Med Gull. A quick count this morning logged 135 Med Gull spread across the three islands. Also in the Wareham Channel the White-tailed Eagle pair looked settled out on Shag Looe spit, before taking off around 10am, gaining height and drifting off towards the coast. This afternoon a big push of Swallow and House Martin came through with several hundred passing over on a broad front, in with them were 11 Swift. This morning a Glossy Ibis crossed Arne Bay, heading towards Poole, and at Lytchett Bay this morning 19 Whimbrel headed off north and 4 Wheatear were across the site. In Brands Bay there were still 2 dark-bellied Brent Geese and there were also 10 Whimbrel. 

However, the best (and now almost predictable news) today was that one of our 2-year old Ospreys from our 2021 translocation returned back to the UK for the first time. This is incredibly early with most 2-year olds not arriving back until later in May or even June! The twist is like twice before, this female, known as 372, didn’t return here to Poole, but in fact dropped in briefly on a nest site in Wales…..just like 014 and 019 have done in previous years. We were sent a screen grab today from John Williams of 372 briefly landing on a nest cam at the Llyn Clwedog site. This is great as it means the 2-year olds are now on their way, although it would be nice if a few more ‘Poole Males’ dropped by…..we’re sure they will over time. All great stuff though!!

A now typical scene with White-tailed Eagle pair G463 and G466 in Wareham Channel this AM