It seems we’re now entering the next phase of autumn migration with many of the early autumn migrants having passed through, for example we’ve now passed the peak passage period for Willow Warbler (45 ringed this AM) and Sedge Warbler (51 ringed this AM), but are now seeing new arrivals such as todays handsome Wryneck ringed in the Lower Piddle Valley. Wryneck are always a mid-Autumn passage migrant with peak numbers usually logged between August and early September. It also seems the second wave of Grasshopper Warbler are passing through (perhaps second broods?) with 21 ringed this morning at the same site, totalling a whopping 502 Grasshopper Warbler ringed there so far since early July. The other new phase we’re experiencing is the passage of juvenile Ospreys from much further north, which included a juvenile female from Keilder Forest, Scotland this morning, ring number 2B9 seen from our Osprey Cruise. Also logged from the cruise today were 5+ Osprey, 1 White-tailed Eagle, 3 Great White Egret, 23 Spoonbill, 2 Marsh Harrier, 14 Avocet and 1 Peregrine. At Middlebere there was a late Swift, 1 Spotted Redshank, 23 Greenshank, 1 Whimbrel and an un-ringed female Osprey. At RSPB Arne, the Saline Lagoon walk produced 1 Pied Flycatcher, 5 Spotted Flycatcher, 1 Garden Warbler, 2 Common Sandpiper and 2 Osprey over. A flock of 31 Cattle Egret were near the Stoborough causeway.

Eurasian Wryneck – Lower Piddle Valley 

Juvenile female Osprey ‘2B9’ from Keilder Forest, sat a dead tree at RSPB Arne