Another fabulous day in the harbour today, even with a building and developing nippy easterly wind. There was the best arrival of Swift so far this spring with c10 in and around Swineham whilst people were watching the Red-spotted Bluethroat, plus decent numbers of Sand Martin were feeding in that area. There were also a few small parties of Swift seen over Upper Parkstone  There was also a prolonged decent passage of Swallow passing north at various narrow points across the harbour including the harbour entrance and the river mouths in the Wareham Channel. The Forster’s Tern was found again, initially in Lytchett Bay this morning, but later in the Wareham Channel just meters from the side of our Spring Safari Cruise, now almost in it’s full summer plumage, which is a great education for us all. On the Brownsea Lagoon there was a definite arrival of new passage Bar-tailed Godwit with 30+ in their full summer finery with a few dullards amongst them in winter plumage, plus 3 Spoonbill, c20 Avocet, 1 Grey Plover, c60 Common Tern, c100 Sandwich Tern and 2 Greenshank. In Lytchett Bay 3 Yellow Wagtail passed over, a Common Sandpiper and a flock of 12 passage Greenshank were in the Wareham Channel.

There was more drama at the Osprey nest this morning when another intruder Osprey decided to visit, but this time giving it’s identity away by dangling a leg in view of the camera. It was none other than our 2-year old male 5R0, the bird that was photographed down in Devon last week. As we said at the time, this is incredibly early for a 2-year old to be back and he seems to be partially sticking around. No doubt he’ll disappear later in the spring and ‘chill out’ for the summer, before returing again in early autumn to check out potential breeding sites hopefully for next year. We did see 2 Osprey moving around over the Wareham Channel late morning during our boat trip which we believe to have been our local male 022 escorting newbie 5R0 out of the area. Plus, another Osprey was seen (potentially?) arriving fresh in over Ridge and seen heading towards the Wareham Chanel.

Forster’s Tern – From our Spring Safari this AM – Wareham Channel – Martin Wright

Freeze frame of 5R0 visiting the Carey Secret Garden nest this AM 

Freeze frame of 5R0 visiting the Carey Secret Garden nest this AM