With a steady (and often quite strong) set of south-westerly winds over the last week, it was a surprise when a visitor more associated with an easterly airflow was found at RSPB Arne, with an all too brief male Red-backed Shrike was at Arne Farm. Initially feeding on a log pile next to the farm, it then quickly disappeared, and was later re-found, on Grip Heath at Arne, but once again, soon disappeared and couldn’t be relocated. The south Poole Harbour-Purbeck landscape is evolving beautifully, and although todays bird is almost certainly a passage migrant on its way elsewhere, it’s hoped this will become less ‘all to brief’ and a ‘much more frequently’ circumstance.

Elsewhere an adult male White-tailed Eagle was in the Wareham Channel this afternoon, and the local Marsh Harrier pair were busy in west harbour. The Brownsea Lagoon still held 2 Spoonbill plus 9 Avocet, 1 lone Bar-tailed Godwit. At Middlebere this morning 2 Osprey were active in the area, a Spoonbill flew over and a Hobby was over RSPB Arne Moors.

Red-backed Shrike – RSPB Arne Farm – Peter Moore

Another day of two halves, with this morning not really worth getting out of bed for, where as this afternoon a hint of the early summer we had a few weeks ago, and with the summer due to arrive back later this weekend, it seems we just have to endure a few more days of grot. This afternoon when the sun came out, 2 Osprey were seen in Middlebere and 1 was also later seen in the Wareham Channel (likely 022). The Brownsea Lagoon held 2 Spoonbill, 7 Avocet, the lone male Red-breasted Merganser and a sure fire sign that autumn is just around the corner 😉 with the first returning Common Redshank of the season, likely a failed breeder from somewhere relatively close by? Also this afternoon an adult White-tailed Eagle circled over Middlebere, a Great White Egret was seen on RSPB Arne Moors and a Marsh Harrier was hunting over Ridge Wharf boat yard and an Osprey was in Lytchett Bay this morning.

Hobby briefly on one of our Osprey nest platforms this afternoon

Another blustery day in the harbour, but this didn’t put off any action. 1 Osprey was in Lytchett Bay this morning and at least 2 were hunting there for periods throughout the day. At Middlebere 2 Osprey were active with one being female 6J8. From our Summer Safari Cruises today we saw 1 Goshawk flying over the Wareham Channel that made the gulls on the islands all erupt at once before the Goshawk headed off towards Holton. 2 White-tailed Eagle were active around the Wareham Channel and Middlebere, with one being the adult male G463 and the other a 2-year old immature bird G704. They had some aerial battles and in amongst the fray were 1 Common Buzzard, 1 Marsh Harrier and 1 Osprey. At least 3 Osprey were active in the Wareham Channel too, including an impressive fish catch from local male 022, before then having to fight off (succesfully) 2 Great Black-backed Gull in hot pursuit. 1 Greenshank was in the Wareham Channel along with c100 Black-tailed Godwit. The 1 Red-breasted Merganser was still on the Brownsea Lagoon, along with 7 Avocet, 1 Ringed Plover and 2 Spoonbill.

Yesterday we were out surveying some of the local Barn Owl and Kestrel Boxes around the harbour that we and the National Trust installed a few years ago. Great to see that quite a few of these were active with well grown chicks. In total we found 3 broods of Barn Owls with 2, 4 and 5 chicks each and 1 brood of Kestrels with 4 chicks. We were able to ring these chicks (and 1 adult Barn Owl as photographed) under Schedule 1 licence. This will allow us to continue monitoring these individuals and learn about movements of our local populations. With huge population crashes of both these species in the past it’s fantastic to see quite a few of the boxes being used and this monitoring will help to understand how the population changes. Big thank you to the National Trust and the ringers at Carey’s Secret Garden for their support.

022 being chased (unsucessfully) by a Great Black-backed Gull – Wareham Channel from our Summer Safari – Alison Copland

Barn Owl chick – Kate Fox

Adult female Barn Owl – Ed Betteridge

We apologise, for some reason last nights post didn’t upload, so we’ll just do a double whammy today. Yesterday we spent the day checking Kestrel boxes around the harbour, most of which we put up several years ago. It was great to see that many were active with healthy chicks, some of which were at the right stage to be ringed and colour-ringed under licence to understand more about their movements and productivity. Kestrel populations have crashed in recent years, with very little known about their decline. By colour-ringing a number of them, we’ll hopefully learn how far some of these young birds are dispersing. In total we ringed 3 healthy broods of Kestrel with broods of 3, 4 and 5 chicks. A further 3 nests were observed with chicks too. A big thank you to National Trust Purbeck Countryside team and the ringers at Careys Secret Garden for supporting on this.

This morning the local Osprey drama re-started with newly arrived female 6J8 returning to a favoured nest platform, quickly followed by male 5R0. During the stormy weather they’ve been keeping a low profile, with very few sightings, but today 5R0 managed to deliver her 2 fish which is a great sign for this early in the season. Will he be able stay the favourite, or will 5H3 and 5H6 try and muscle in over the coming days? Yesterday there was very little observed during a sea watch, despite promising conditions with just 5 Manx Shearwater, 5 Kittiwake, 7 Guillemot, 4 Fulmar and 10+ Gannet. Great news today too that 2 of the 4 Poole Asda Peregrines have fledged, both of which were sat on different parts of the flats. All being well chicks 3 and 4 will fledge over the coming days, and this is a brilliant time to monitor/watch them from the Asda car park as the parents start encouraging them to fly by flying around overhead with prey in their talons. This afternoon the strange sight of a Nightjar flying down the track was unusual and unexpected!

Kestrel chick ringed near Hartland Moor yesterday

Kestrel chick being ringed at Carey Secret Garden yesterday

Male Osprey 5R0 delivering female Osprey 6J8 a fish this AM

Female Osprey 6J8 and Male Osprey 5R0 together on nest platform this AM

Todays strong winds saw a small element of up channel passage out in Poole Bay this AM with 10+ Gannet, 20+ Sandwich Tern and a full summer plumaged Great Northern Diver settled on the water and this afternoon it was pretty much the same, plus 3 Manx Shearwater. Within the harbour, after this mornings deluge 2 male Osprey were following each other around in the Wareham Channel, and there were 10+ Swift hawking low over Swineham. The Brownsea Lagoon is still hosting 2 Spoonbill, plus 6 Avocet, 1 Bar-tailed Godwit and 4 Mediterranean Gulls.

Male Osprey from (very windy) Summer Safari this afternoon – John Thorp

With the change in weather comes a change in mood. The recent heatwave brought summer vibes and good feeling. Todays drizzle and strong winds mirrored the despair and anger after hearing that the young male White-tailed Eagle that fledged from Dorset last summer, ring number G834, has ‘suspiciously’ gone missing on the North Yorkshire Moors, an area where many sat-tagged birds of prey seem to disappear or tags seem stop working, despite working absolutely fine elsewhere in the country up until that point. You can read the BBC article HERE.

The news article only touches on the potential cause very briefly, by mentioning that the police regularly investigates missing sat-tagged birds of prey on or close to areas associated with game shooting. But in truth, we can all take a very well educated guess as to what has happened to this poor young eagle, which will now just become another sad statistic rather than a fully grown breeding adult, producing young of it’s own.

This isn’t only devastating because of the historic importance of this particular bird, but also because we were there the day this bird was ringed and tagged having kindly been invited by Forestry England and the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation to help support on the day. Firstly, we’d like to thank and congratulate both organisations for working so tirelessly on making this project a success, despite these cutting set backs. The project leads Steve Egerton-Read, Imogen Lloyd and Tim Mackrill have done a fantastic job in building and managing the success of this project, and like all conservation projects they need to be built on perseverance and resilience. This bird in particular (plus several more) was viewed and enjoyed by many hundreds of visitors to the area earlier this year as he visited and toured Poole Harbour, and was also witnessed by several school groups during our School Bird Boat project. Regardless of your views on reintroductions, having these birds back in the landscape has generated wide-scale excitement and reinvigorated peoples interest in nature recovery. They help interpret a story of a species bouncing back from extinction, whilst helping build momentum to get even more done.

We won’t shy away from acknowledging what is likely to have really happened, and encourage anyone involved in species recovery,  to keep fighting the fight a never ever give up. All your hard work is starting to have a far greater positive impact than the negative stories like this that appear.

Imogen Lloyd from Forestry England ringing and tagging male White-tailed Eagle G834 last summer – Tim Mackrill

Male White-tailed Eagle G834 back on the nest after ringing and tagging last summer – Tim Mackrill