New birds are coming thick and fast this year. With the Forster’s Tern a few days ag0 and the first trickle of summer migrants over the last week, the last thing we were expecting was a message to say there was a Great Bustard up on Ballard Down! Interestingly, the bird was associating with 2 Roe Deer for the whole day, and permanently grazed with them, perhaps thinking it too was a deer of sorts. After watching for a short while, it became obvious that it had an orange ‘flag’ on the lower left leg, which suggested it’s from the Salisbury Plain population/project and incredibly, we’ve already heard back from the Great Bustard Project Team providing info on this bird.  Below is the info from Siobhan Lewis:

This is only the 3rd Poole Harbour record, despite the Salisbury Plain/Wiltshire population now growing quite considerably to about 100 individuals. It will be interesting to see how long he stays until he heads off back north to the Salisbury Plain in time for the summer. The Forster’s Tern was reported briefly again off Baiter mid-afternoon, just after 3pm and the 10 Glossy Ibis were once again out on Wareham Common, viewable from North Walls. There were 4 Black-necked Grebe and 2 Great Northern Diver off Middle Beach, Studland, 3 Spoonbill were on Shipstal, RSPB Arne and 2 White-tailed Eagle were in the Wareham Channel this afternoon. Finally, a dusk watch at Swineham GP resulted in a ridiculous count of 9 Eurasian Bittern that lifted and circled above the gravel pit, with only one calling, before all then settled back down into the reed beds again. Will/did they leave after dark or will they all (or more) go tomorrow??

Great Bustard – Ballard Down