At Swineham this morning there was 1 Great White Egret and a few Yellow Wagtail. 4 Osprey were hunting in Lytchett Bay this afternoon. Wader numbers are continuing to rise in the harbour with 3 Ringed Plover, 58 Curlew, 4 Whimbrel, 154 Black-tailed Godwit, 1 Greenshank and 111 Mediterranean Gull in Brands Bay. 1 male Goshawk was at Holton Heath.

With the amount of Osprey and Eagle action building in the harbour, as we enter Osprey migration period, our free pop-up watches begin again at Ham Common and Rock Lea View, Lytchett Bay this coming week. Our first one is Tuesday 4th August 9am-12pm at Rock Lea View and you can find more information, all the dates and book free tickets at the link here. Hopefully we’ll have similar encounters as in recent days with at least 4 active hunting Ospreys, juveniles starting to explore the harbour and kleptoparasitism by White-tailed Eagles!

Peregrine Falcon ‘MS’ (juvenile Poole female 2026) – practice hunting BH Gulls last weekend over Brownsea from Summer Safari – Scott Newman

Peregrine Falcon ‘MS’ – ringed by the Dorset Raptor Study Group this summer – now exploring the harbour – Scott Newman

The first day of August brought with it another instance of kleptoparasitism of a White-tailed Eagle on an Osprey – this time in Lytchett Bay, where 3 Ospreys were fishing and male Eagle G463 forced one to drop its fish. It went into the water to try to claim it but failed and had to use its wings to swim back to shore. It later flew off, being mobbed by an unringed female Osprey. A juvenile male Redstart was ringed in Lytchett may along with a handful of Garden Warbler and Grasshopper Warbler. Huge numbers of Willow Warbler are passing through at the moment with yellow juveniles seemingly spread around all habitats in the harbour in good numbers.

We had the first sighting of one of the young Ospreys in the harbour today with 6T6 practising hunting in the Wareham Channel from our Summer Safari Cruise. Both adult White-tailed Eagles were active in the Wareham Channel being mobbed by Hobby and Osprey.

Osprey 6T6 from the Carey Nest – Wareham Channel – Alison Copland

White-tailed Eagle G466 being mobbed by Hobby – Wareham Channel – Alison Copland

Distant Osprey mobbing White-tailed Eagle having attempted fish theft – Lytchett Bay – Sam Levy