Another pretty dire day today weather wise, but perhaps once this weather goes through it may have delivered the first Great Northern Diver into the harbour? Or perhaps even a Little Auk? Neither were found today, rather a White-tailed Eagle over the Brownsea Lagoon this morning was as good as it gets. Well, c70 Spoonbill still on Brownsea wasn’t too shabby. Last night a first night ringing session of the season was carried out by Stour Ringing Group and an amazing 9 Jack Snipe were ringed, highlighting we’re currently in peak passage for these northern arrivals. Two of the 9 were re-traps, one first ringed in Nov 2023 and the other Feb 2025, once again highlighting winter site fidelity for this species at Sunnyside.  Unfortunately, the weather was so dire yesterday that it was impossible to read the ring number of the ringed Glossy Ibis seen in the Wareham Channel by the surveying WeBS counter, however it’s incredibly likely to have been the same individual that was recently seen at Lodmoor a few weeks ago and captured perfectly by photographer Graham Jaggard. The bird was traced back to the Doñana National Park, Spain where it was ringed as a chick in August 2025.

Glossy Ibis – Lodmoor (Oct 2025) – X social media post by Graham Jaggard 

First Jack Snipe of the autumn – Ringed at Sunnyside – Ed Betteridge