Still no sign of this wind letting up, although early next week looks good for some more migrant arrivals. Today sightings were pretty thin on the ground but did included 2 Spoonbill and a Little Ringed Plover on Brownsea, 1 Water Pipit at Lytchett Bay, 2 White-tailed Eagle in the Wareham Channel, 1 Swallow at Lytchett Bay and 3 Marsh Harrier at Swineham.

Also, now that our new Osprey cameras are up and running and being live streamed in goodness knows how many houses, offices and classrooms across the country, we thought it would be a nice idea to provide an overview of last year’s events, providing significant dates relating to various milestones during the season. To complement this information, our volunteer Alison Copland has compiled a wonderful video which features multiple heart-warming, funny (and some not so funny) sequences that have been clipped from last year’s live stream.

We estimate it’s only between 10-15 days until our pair could return back, possibly even sooner considering how strong the winds have been coming up from southern Europe over the next week. These strong winds could provide perfect migrating conditions for many migrating birds, not just Ospreys, as they use the tail wind to travel across larger than normal areas on route back to breeding grounds. In fact, we even heard today, that a female Osprey that nests up on the borders returned 9 days early today!

Having watched the video multiple times since Alison sent it to us, it’s easy to forget just how eventful, exciting and fascinating last seasons escapades were. We hope you enjoy the video and are keeping everything crossed for another (even better) successful year.

For reference, below the video is a list of significant dates from last year’s breeding season.

Poole Osprey Season 2022 Overview Film

Poole Osprey Season 2022 Overview

• April 5^th – CJ7 arrives back and lands on her new nest platform
• April 10^th – 022 arrives back and joins CJ7 on new nest platform
• April 23^rd – 1^st egg is laid
• April 26^th 2^nd egg is laid
• April 29^th – 3^rd egg is laid
• 31^st May – 1^st egg hatches
• June 3^rd – 2^nd egg hatches
• July 4^th – chicks are ringed
• July 23^rd – chick 5H1 fledges
• July 25^th – chick 5H2 fledges
• Aug 3^rd – un-ringed Osprey ‘notch-wing’ lands on the nest for the first time
• August 5^th – Goshawk attack on chick 5H2
• August 8^th – chick 5H2 sadly died
• August 24th  – 5H1 migrated
• August 28^th – CJ7 migrated
• Sept 10^th – 022 migrated

With possibly only a week or two left until the main bulk of Ospreys start arriving back into the UK, we were thrilled to be able to re-launch our Osprey nest cam(s) today with several improvements on last year, including two new camera angles and now sound as well! All we need now is some Ospreys. These new angles should give us all the views we need to be able to see and hear all of this years comings and goings, including the hatching, raising and fledging of more wild Osprey chicks later in the year. Here’s a blog giving an overview of the new camera set ups, including an update on the status of the old nest cam – New Osprey Nest Cam Blog

The weather today once again didn’t fill many birders with joy as strong winds bellowed across the harbour. Highlights including 2 House Martin in off the sea at Middle Beach, Studland with 2 summer plumaged Black-necked Grebe still out in Studland Bay. A Little Ringed Plover was at Lytchett Fields, at Swineham 3 Swallow, 19 Sand Martin and a drake Pochard were on and over the gravel pit and the White-tailed Eagle pair were in the Wareham Channel again this morning.

It was difficult to see beyond a few hundred meters for most of the day, but that didn’t stop the springs first migrant Osprey powering on through, with one seen heading over the Wareham bypass this morning, heading up the Frome Valley. A search for yesterdays Alpine Swift in Poole returned no news, although an intriguing sighting of a long winged, ‘Hobby-like’ bird seen dashing high over Wareham train station got excitement going. A search for it from Wareham Walls couldn’t find the mystery bird, but did see 8 Golden Plover fly north. On the Brownsea Lagoon 1 Little Ringed Plover, 6 Spoonbill and 11 Sandwich Tern were the highlights amongst the remaining Avocet, Black-tailed Godwits and Redshank. As usual, the 2 White-tailed Eagles were in the Wareham Channel this morning and again later this afternoon, and there were 2 others just beyond the harbour boundaries near Wareham Forest and Kimmeridge.

Stunning summer-plumaged Black-tailed Godwit – Lytchett Fields – Ian Ballam

As we’d hoped, an Alpine Swift was reported over Poole Harbour airspace, on the northern edge of Poole Park, near the tennis courts. Several other sightings were still received from just east of us with 1-2 individuals still around the Christchurch Harbour/Bournemouth area, so there’s still a chance one could still be over this way over the coming days. There was still plenty to keep things interesting though with c50 Sand Martin over Swineham GP this evening and 2 Cattle Egret there too. There were also 3 Cattle Egret seen again this morning from the Rock Lea viewpoint, Lytchett Bay. A Merlin and 4 Spoonbill were at Shipstal, Arne this afternoon and 2 White-tailed Eagle flew along the Wareham Channel this evening. At dusk 7 Marsh Harrier went to roost as did 25 Little Egret into the heronry along the Wareham Channel. There was also another small movement of Red Kite with 2 over Middlebere, 1 over Swineham and 2 over Upton.

Bar-tailed Godwits – Brownsea Lagoon – Clive Hargrave

It was all go today, with plenty of new arrivals and some interesting activity logged of a certain species. Firstly, it was definitely a Wheatear day with 7 at Greenlands Farm, 5 at Sunnyside, 1 at Lytchett Fields and 1 at Stoborough Heath. Today also saw the first Little Ringed Plover with 1 at Lytchett Fields. A Common Crane flew over Middlebere mid-morning and headed towards Arne Moors before heading off south east again. A Goshawk dashed through Middlebere this afternoon, hunting godwits and at Swineham 6 Sand Martin were feeding. On the Brownsea Lagoon, 13 Sandwich Tern were now back and a single Spoonbill was feeding. This evening 3 Cattle Egret settled on Sherford Pools at Lytchett Fields and 1 Black-necked Grebe was off Middle Beach . This morning, an interesting photo was taken of the White-tailed Eagle pair, G466 and G463 sat on an old dilapidated Osprey nest platform. This doesn’t really mean too much, other than it was a good place to sit, but it seems their bond is strengthening. It will be fascinating to see what happens as the spring develops with these 2 birds as to whether they choose a preferred location within the harbour to settle. Finally, it seems we’re probably only days away from seeing our first migrant Osprey in the harbour as more arrived on breeding grounds further north today. Regarding our Osprey nest cam, we’re currently getting asked quite a bit about when our’s will be up and running and we’re glad to say it won’t be long at all now. After doing some final last minute tweaks today, all being well it should be up and running in the next couple of days.

White-tailed Eagles – Clive Hargrave

With the influx of Alpine Swift in the last couple of days, you never know what might turn up – the southerly winds are definitely kicking the Osprey season off to a good start across the country. The highlight of the sightings today was a Ruff present at Lytchett Fields, regularly moving between Sherford and French’s Pools. Also present at Lytchett Fields was a decent flock of c.100 Black-tailed Godwit, 1 Spotted Redshank, Dunlin and Redshank. At Swineham, a count produced 12 Shoveler, 27 Gadwall, 137 Teal, 87 Black-tailed Godwit and 2 Marsh Harrier.

Ruff amongst Black-tailed Godwit and Redshank – Lytchett Fields – Ian Ballam

Spring migration is really coming into its own and it really won’t be long now until the first Poole Harbour Wheatear of the season is reported, with an exciting count of 50 individuals at Portland and the first Swallow seen in Dorchester today. Sand Martin numbers continue to rise, with 3 reported over Wareham Common this morning, along with 6 Black-tailed Godwits. 2 Cattle Egret were also logged flying up the River Piddle this morning. 1 Spotted Redshank was present in Lytchett Bay again today, with a distant Goshawk seen over Lytchett Fields. A count Holes Bay produced 13 Avocet, 51 Pintail, 7 Shoveler and 30 Dunlin, as well as high numbers of Black-tailed Godwit and Wigeon still present. 1 White-tailed Eagle was seen over Arne and the Wareham Channel this morning, also being reported at Hartland Moor along with one ringtail Hen Harrier over the site.

White-tailed Eagle – RSPB Arne – Kate Plater