After all the Osprey madness in recent weeks it’s nice to talk about a few scarcities this evening. Firstly, an Ortolan Bunting was sound recorded during a noc-mig session on Sat night into Sunday morning at 02:41 over Oakdale. Just over 10 years ago now we learned that this species can be a frequent nocturnal migrant over urban Poole, despite its immense scarcity during daylight hours. This is the first autumn record for a few years now, but this is likely down to reduced noc-mig efforts rather than decreased movements of birds. A juvenile Honey Buzzard passed over Lytchett Bay this afternoon, seemingly a dark-morph youngster. This evening 7 Glossy Ibis were in Middlebere which were initially assumed to be the same 7 that were at Lodmoor yesterday, but according to the info services those 7 are still there, which suggests theres currently another Glossy Ibis arrival occurring, which it did this time last year. Elsewhere there were 2 Spotted Redshank at Lytchett Fields and another in Middlebere, 3-4 Osprey were in the Wareham Channel, 12 Spoonbill on the Brownsea Lagoon and a White-tailed Eagle over Middlebere.

Ortolan Bunting over Oakdale – Early hours of Sunday morning – David Foster

Sonagram of Ortolan Bunting tew call over Oakdale