It was nice to feel some rain today, although only very briefly, but the landscape really, really needed it. The brisk wind during the day made birding tricky, but not as tricky as our youngest Osprey, male 5R6’s first flight this afternoon which resulted in a 5 hour absence from the nest, only to then arrive with what looked like fresh blood of his on his neck and breast. His fledge seemed rather panicked (possible Goshawk close by?), which meant he took off for the very first time during quite strong winds. He was flying around beautifully for several minutes, highlighting that he was ready to fly, but then dropped down into the valley below where there was then no sign of him for 5-hours. It’s likely that in the strong wind he probably crash landed somewhere, injuring himself in the process. Thankfully, later this afternoon he returned to the nest, and quite happily ate 3 fish, so for now, it looks like he’s going to be fine…..fingers crossed!

There was plenty more going on again today with a newly arrived Curlew Sandpiper on the Brownsea Lagoon this evening from our Sunset Safari Cruise and both White-tailed Eagles were in the Wareham Channel. There were 2 Common Crane out on Arne Moors briefly this afternoon and there was a good arrival of waders with 29 Green Sandpiper on Lytchett Fields this morning, 15+ Common Sandpiper on the Brownsea north shore and 9 Greenshank were in Middlebere. There were also 8 Spoonbill in Middlebere along with 1 Goshawk. The Purple Heron was a Little Sea, Studland again.

Male Osprey chick ‘5R6’ returing to the nest this afternoon with blood on his front.