A rainy end to July which made birding tricky with intermittent downpours. Nice numbers of waders building up in Holes Bay for our pop-up watch today with c15 Curlew, 3 Whimbrel, 3 Common Sandpiper and c50 Black-tailed Godwit as well as 2 Peregrine sat very distantly on the Asda building in Poole. In the early afternoon at the Middlebere hide there were 2 Greenshank, 2 Green Sandpiper, 1 Osprey, 1 Hobby, 2 Whimbrel and c200 Black-tailed Godwit. At Shipstal point there were 1 Spoonbill and 2 Whimbrel.

At the Piddle Valley ringing site another 80 birds were ringed before the rain came in with 38 Sedge Warbler, 4 Grasshopper Warbler, 2 Reed Warbler, 6 Chiffchaff and 10 Willow Warbler. There was also a bit more variety with the first Lesser Whitethroat of the season, 1 Firecrest and 1 Grey Wagtail.

We have a couple of bird ringing demonstrations coming up, including 1 next Friday, hoping to show you some of these autumn migrants up close and talk to you all about the bird ringing process. Book online here.

Lesser Whitethroat – Piddle Valley Ringing Station – Ed Betteridge

Firecrest – Piddle Valley Ringing Station – Ed Betteridge