Although things felt superficially the same today in terms of weather, there seemed to be a rise in activity when it came to migrating birds and returning birds. The main highlights included the return of Scottish female Osprey 6J8 who was only seen in Wales yesterday. She came back this afternoon. and spent a bit of time fishing in the Wareham Channel before heading straight back to the nest platform she favoured a few weeks ago, and was immediately joined by our 2-year old male Osprey 5R0. They immediately started ‘re-bonding’ with 5R0 even bringing a few sticks to the nest. This is exactly the time we want to see new pairs on nest platforms, as it tends to be later in the summer when younger Osprey start ‘planning’ for next year, and the fact 6J8 has come back at this time of the summer strongly suggests there’s a good chance we could be witnessing our third Osprey pair establishing. It was also excellent to see our local breeding female Osprey CJ7 fishing in the harbour for the first time since her arrival on March 25th. There also some excellent news in that it’s been confirmed that two pairs of Marsh Harrier have bred in the harbour area this year at undisclosed locations, fledging a total of 4 young. This is excellent news and highlights the richness and health of local habitats across the area currently. More new arrivals included 9 passage Yellow Wagtails on the Stilt Pools at Swineham with 14 Cattle Egret spread across the meadows there plus a random Barnacle Goose. There were also 3 Great White Egret on RSPB Arne Moors and 2-3 Yellow-legged Gulls. The Brownsea Lagoon held 5 Spoonbill, 4 Greenshank, 2 Common Sandpiper and 2 Avocet. Finally, the Lower Piddle Valley ringing station had a great morning and ringed an incredible 53 Grasshopper Warbler. At Lytchett Fields decent numbers of waders continued to arrive with 15 Greenshank, 5 Green Sandpiper and 4 Common Sandpiper.

Yellow Wagtail – Swineham – Garry Hayman

Cattle Egret – Swineham – Garry Hayman

Female Osprey 6J8 arriving back into the harbour yesterday afternoon – Harry McBride

Male Osprey 5R0 aquatinting himself with female 6J8 yesterday evening