Really nice records again on Brownsea Lagoon today with Little Gull, Little Tern and Roseate Tern all reported. It’s good to hear the there are up to 8 Sandwich Tern chicks now hatched on the tern islands on the lagoon, as well as 2 Knot, 23 Dunlin, 1 Sanderling, 26 Bar-tailed Godwit and 2 Avocet also counted. One of the White-tailed Eagles was present on Shag Looe spit in the Wareham Channel this morning. Interestingly, there was a Green Sandpiper on at Lytchett Fields this morning, as well as a female Marsh Harrier over the bay. We’re also very pleased to see the fourth and final egg hatch on the Osprey nest late last night, meaning that we now have the full cohort. You can watch the webcam here.

Four Osprey chicks on the nest

More rain meaning few sightings from today. 1 White-tailed Eagle was seen flying over Holes Bay heading north-east in the early afternoon and that’s all that was reported today!

In better news it looks like the final Osprey chick is about to hatch! The beak is poking through so it will likely be either this evening or overnight that it hatches, meaning we’ll have 4 chicks in the nest! The 3 chicks have been feeding well over the last few days and starting to battle it out for a position in the hierachy. You can watch the action unfold LIVE here:

Lovely sunny conditions for our final Spring Safari Cruise this morning with birds of prey galore including 1 White-tailed Eagle soaring over the Wareham Channel as well as incredibly close views of 2 Marsh Harrier and 1 Hobby hunting over Swineham. The geese/ducks of unknown origin at Swineham are still present with 1 Ruddy Shelduck and 1 Bar-headed Goose amongst the Canada, Greylag and Egyptian geese. On the Brownsea Lagoon there were 2 Avocet, c15 Dunin, c20 Bar-tailed Godwit, 3 Sanderling, 3 Turnstone and plenty of Common Tern and Sandwich Tern action including a huge mixed group of Terns/Gulls feeding on the edge of the lagoon, presumably on a gathering of small fry. An Osprey was seen with a fish over Hamworthy this morning.

Gadwall – Lytchett Fields – Pete Corbin on X

It’s been a bit of a murky day, with sightings few and far between. There were close views of a Gannet hunting near North Haven this morning. Also of interest was a drake Mandarin Duck present at Poole Park. A male Marsh Harrier was reported hunting over Lytchett Fields in the late afternoon.

Mandarin Duck – Poole Park – Paul Sutton

The third Osprey chick hatched this morning at 2:13am, and seems to be keeping up well with it’s older siblings! An adult bird was also seen over Lytchett Bay at 9:45am. At Swineham there were 182 Black-tailed Godwit, along with 2 Redshank and a Greenshank on the flooded fields.

Three Poole Harbour Osprey Chicks

Highlights from a breezy but bright Spring Safari Cruise this morning were a Little Gull on the Brownsea Lagoon, 1 Greenshank in amongst 40 Black-tailed Godwit on the flooded fields at Swineham, an 80+ strong flock of Swift feeding together in the Frome Valley, and in the Wareham Channel 2 Marsh Harrier plus male Osprey 022 who caught a Bass and quickly delivered it to the nest. An Osprey was seen earlier in the morning in Lytchett Bay, and nearby at Frenches Farm the House Martins could be seen gathering mud for nest building! A separate count on the Brownsea Lagoon by Dorset Wildlife Trust staff also produced an extra Little Gull and 2 Roseate Tern.

House Martins gathering mud – French’s Farm, Lytchett Bay – Annabel Sharpe on Twitter

Very slow migration wise today, but there was excitement none the less when our first Osprey chick of the season hatched out at 07:44 this morning. After battling its way out of the egg for a few hours, CJ7 helped with the final tricky section by knocking the top of the egg off, revealing its head and bewildered expression as it took it’s first look at the world. During the course of the day it had several good, but small feeds, but as we know from previous years, their growth is rapid and they won’t stay this adorable for too long. Then, at around 17:30 this evening a second egg started hatching and by 20:00 the chick had managed to chip it’s self a nice sized hole which will likely result in it’s full hatching sometime tonight. Elsewhere there were Osprey sightings in Lytchett Bay, confirmed as an un-ringed male, and another off Jerry’s Point this afternoon which headed towards Ower Bay.

First feeding of Osprey chick 2024

The forecast downpours for this morning thankfully never came to fruition, meaning our Spring Safari Cruise this AM delivered on both birds and fine weather. The Brownsea Lagoon held 1 1st summer Little Gull, 6 Sanderling, c80 Dunlin, 5 Turnstone, 4 Avocet, c300 Sandwich Tern and c100 Common Tern. In the Wareham Channel male White-tailed Eagle G466 was out on Shag Looe Spit, and then flew off up over Swineham, where a drake Garganey was on the floods south of the gravel pit, a Hobby almost landed on the boat, twisting at the last second before hitting one of our guests, a magical c250 Common Swift were bombing about with Swallow, House Martin and Sand Martin and a Great White Egret flew up briefly from Keysworth. Later this afternoon a Little Tern was on the lagoon, 3 Little Ringed Plover and 1 Spoonbill were on the Lower Piddle Floods and an un-ringed Osprey was in Lytchett Bay. The family party of Woodlark that fledged at Carey Secret Garden recently are still active and were viewed from an Osprey monitoring session late afternoon.

Woodlark – Carey Secret Garden