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