With a cold northerly setting in over the last couple of days, it seems to be holding a few birds up, and this morning there was an obvious arrival of Common Swift with c100 spread across the Arne Moors/Swineham area along with a steady northward passage of Swallow, House Martin and Sand Martin. The Russian White-fronted Goose was still off Swineham Point for most of the and over head 4+ Hobby were hunting above the gravel pit and 5+ Red Kite passed over too. On the Stilt Pools at Swineham there was 1 Common Sandpiper, 1 Little Ringed Plover and 2 Common Redshank. A male Ruff was also in the mouth of the River Frome and what looked like male White-tailed Eagle G463 was seen being aggressively territorial up high over the Wareham Channel, seeing off another adult White-tailed Eagle. What is presumed to have been the same 2 White-tailed Eagles were seen soaring high over Poole train station about an hour later. There were no less than 3 different Marsh Harrier floating around the top end of the Wareham Channel and this morning the Little Gull that’s been roaming about was in Brands Bay where 7 Whimbrel and 1 Common Sandpiper were also feeding. There were 10 Whimbrel in Holes Bay, 5 Avocet on the Brownsea Lagoon and a Hobby entered the harbour entrance this AM before drifting off over Brownsea. This evening 4 Cattle Egret went into roost at Swineham.

Cattle Egret – Swineham – Peter Moore