Well, the last 24 hours have been pretty exciting, when late yesterday evening 2 un-identified Osprey appeared in Lytchett Bay, both of which were sporting blue darvic rings. Sadly distance and fading light meant we weren’t able to read the rings, but it looked like 1 male and 1 female. This morning, keen photographers were out early and Mark Wright soon caught up with the female as it headed out fishing in Lytchett Bay. The ring read 6C6, which we’ve managed to track down as a 2022 female from a private site up in Lancashire. Even more amazingly, this is the first sighting of her in the UK since she left on migration back in autumn 2022. Sadly, there was no opportunity to photograph or ID the mystery male, but theres a really good chance this could be a 2023 male of ours from the Carey nest. He disappeared around lunchtime and hasn’t been seen since, but we’re sure he’ll pop up again somewhere over the coming days? weeks? Hopefully giving away his identity.

We were also out this morning surveying the low tide in the Wareham Channel and had the pleasure of watching both adult White-tailed Eagles G466 and G463, seeing how they used the tide to wait for prey to arrive into the shallows, with female G466 casually lifting off a turf mound close to the tide line and dropping into the water, only from about 6 inches off the surface of the water, where she then proceeded to swim back to shore, using her wings, before wading ashore hauling out a massive Flounder. We were also fortunate to have both fly right past us on the boat as we headed towards Swineham. On Swinheam GP there were 6 Little Ringed Plover including 4 adults and 2 fresh juveniles which suggests at least 2 pairs bred in that area this summer.

There was positive news from Brownsea that it seems to have been a good season for terns with c170 Sandwich Tern chicks counted and 105 Common Tern chicks. Passage waders were present in small numbers with 25 Black-tailed Godwit new in, plus 17 Redshank, 1 Greenshank and a lone Dunlin joining the 5 Avocet and 4 Spoonbill. The only other news was of 2 Spotted Redshank on Lytchett Fields.

Female Osprey ‘6C6’ – Lytchett Bay – Mark Wright

Male White-tailed Eagle G463 flying past the boat this AM