Firstly, we aplogise for the late sightings as we were all out at our Sunnyside ringing demo yesterday evening and didn’t get home until late but wow, wow wow….this is the day we have all been waiting for! With the start of the year almost exclusively being grey and rainy, apart from a couple slightly brighter days, Spring landed with a bang toady for multiple reasons. Considering it’s still only Feb 25th, there was a flush of butterflies on the wing including many Brimstones bouncing along woodland edges, Red Admirals enjoying early flowering gardens and migrant Peacock Butterflies moving along coastal sites. Not only that, but the first sub-Saharan migrants also arrived with 3 Sand Martin feeding over Swineham GP this evening whilst multiple Chiffchaff got their spring songs underway. The warmth also saw the harbour Marsh Harrier pair start displaying, Woodlark were in full song near Hartland and in the Lower Piddle Valley and mewing calls of displaying Common Buzzard were much in evidence across multiple skylines. The Swineham ‘egret roost’ was spectacular this evening with c60 Cattle Egret, c30 Little Egret, 2 Great White Egret and 10 Glossy Ibis all swirling around above the gravel pit in one big mega flock having been flushed by a Marsh Harrier…..a scene almost straight from southern France or Spain! During the day, the Glossy Ibis flock were once again feeding out on Wareham Common, just south of the bypass and a Goshawk was seen over Carey from there too. With the clear conditions, other birds of prey seemed to be moving around with a ringtail Hen Harrier soaring high over Rempstone at midday a Red Kite was over Swineham and the White-tailed Eagle pair were soaring over Brownsea and seen heading over Sandbanks towards Bournemouth. On the Studland side, 2 Common Scoter were still out off Middle Beach along with 2 Great Northern Diver and and 4 Black-necked Grebe. Winter still clings on and around the Sunnyside/Hartland area 5+ Jack Snipe were seen along with 10+ Woodcock. 

Jack Snipe – Sunnyside ringing demo – Sunnyside Farm