Another really interesting day today, with some excellent observations noted, as is often typical as August progresses with birds behaviours and movements begin to change. It started off at lunchtime when an adult male Honey Buzzard landed on the Carey Osprey nest briefly, scratching at the nest as if it was searching and seeking out a potential bee or wasp nest. We often see Honey Buzzards around the Osprey nest late in the season, and in fact, what is likely to be this exact bird has been visiting the Osprey nest site since 2019, with observations logged every year since then either on the nest, or fighting with CJ7 and the Osprey chicks. In 2019 when we carried out the 3rd year of the Osprey translocation on the south side of the Carey Estate, an adult male Honey Buzzard would regularly visit and interact with the newly released Osprey chicks during late July and August and has done so ever since. Incredible to get such stunning views of it whilst it sat on teh nest today.

From our Osprey Cruise this AM around 5 Osprey were logged, including a juvenile that flew straight over the boat. Logic would suggest it would have been one of the Carey juveniles, however upon close inspection of one of her photographs, guest on board Annabelle Sharpe noticed the ring read ‘7T0’, which is actually a youngster from our ‘Nest 2’ site just north of the harbour. We believe 7T0 was male during ringing, so it’s great that he’s now also exploring the harbour now. Elsewhere a juvenile Goshawk was photographed close to RSPB Arne, with mid-August to late September being an excellent time to see these amazing birds as they start dispersing from nest sites and teaching themselves how to hunt in the local landscape. Juvenile Goshawk identification is fairly straight forward (if seen well) with youngsters hosting large dark ‘tear drop’ markings all the way down the belly and flanks (as shown in mark Wrights excellent photo below), unlike Sparrowhawk which are always barred on the belly (both adults and juveniles). Goshawk are of course much larger too.

Elsewhere there were 23 Spoonbill on the Brownsea Lagoon with 2 Knot, 15 Greenshank and 4 each of Ringed Plover and Dunlin. At Greenlands Farm, Studland there were 2 Common Redstart, 2 Wheatear, 2 Common Whitethroat, 1 Yellow Wagtail and 1 Whinchat. In Godlingston Heath there were also 2 Yellow Wagtail, 2 Wheatear, 1 Whinchat, 1 Redstart and 1 Spotted Flycatcher. 

Honey Buzzard landing on Carey Osprey nest briefly this afternoon 

Screen grab of Honey Buzzard landing on Carey Osprey nest briefly this afternoon 

Juvenile Goshawk close to RSPB Arne today – Mark Wright

Juvenile Osprey 7T0 over our Osprey Cruise this AM – Annabelle Sharpe

Close up of  7T0’s ring over our Osprey Cruise this AM – Annabelle Sharpe