As we hit the mid-September point, the mix of autumn and winter across the country starts to merge. Whilst we still have Swallows and Ospreys here down south, up t’north today saw the first Fieldfare, Yellow-browed Warblers and Pink-footed Geese of the winter hit the northern isles of Scotland, which means it’s only a couple of weeks until we hear the first ‘zeets’ of arriving Redwings just after dark. That said, ther’s still plenty of ‘summer’ left to enjoy with 2 Hobby over Middlebere today, a minimum of 3 Osprey are still around, including our 2-year old male 5H6 who arrived mid-May this year, and who was also in Christchurch Harbour today. At Sunnyside there were 4 Yellow Wagtail still, a Common Redstart was at RSPB Arne and a Spotted Flycatcher was in the PCW Drain. At Lytchett Fields there were 400 Black-tailed Godwit plus 13 Greenshank and 16 Lapwing. A Glossy Ibis was in the Wareham channel yesterday morning, 9+ Cattle Egret were on Wareham Common where there were also 2 Whinchat. On Brownsea the Spoonbill count reached 62 and there were 50+ Redshank, 21 Greenshank, 17 Curlew, 16 Bar-tailed Godwit, 12 Black-tailed Godwit and increase to 228 Avocet.

2-year old male Osprey 5H6 – Settled briefly on old harbour nest platform today