A cloudy and humid start to the day, with the sun appearing later on in the afternoon. It was a real raptor fest up at our Osprey viewing platform during our Carey Osprey Tours today, keeping female CJ7 and male 022 on their toes. A wandering 2nd calendar year White-tailed Eagle was present during our mid-morning session and was very quickly chased off by both the adult Ospreys, and 3 Buzzard were seen distantly soaring on the thermals. In the afternoon session, we saw a real spectacle. CJ7 seemed to be unsettled and headed away from the nest in pursuit of something, before settling back on the nest. 1 Hobby then appeared hawking on insects above the nest and was then joined by 1 Honey Buzzard, which CJ7 then went in pursuit of, successfully seeing it off. There was also 1 distant Peregrine Falcon seen. The Woodlark was singing throughout the day in the nearby field. Wader numbers were still high at RSPB Lytchett Fields this morning with 1 Spotted Redshank, 10 Green Sandpiper, 14 Redshank, 11 Lapwing, 1 Little Ringed Plover, 1 Oystercatcher, and 1 Greenshank. On Brownsea Lagoon this morning, there were 4 Spoonbill and 4 Avocet, which were also present during our Sunset Safari cruise this evening, along with the first migrant Common Sandpiper of the autumn and an adult Yellow-legged Gull. In the Wareham Channel this evening the adult male Marsh Harrier was active as was the recently fledged juvenile and male White-tailed Eagle G463 was out on Shag Looe Bar. On the low-tide in the Wareham Channel this evening there were limited numbers of early passage waders including 11 Curlew and 2 Black-tailed Godwit. It was also a pleasure to see the first Common and Sandwich Tern chicks fledging, taking their first daring flights as they looped around the lagoon.

Juvenile Sandwich Terns with adults – Brownsea Lagoon – From our Sunset Safari Cruise