So close, yet so far! The rarity roll almost continued this evening when a likely Caspian Tern was seen heading east over Bestwall toward the harbour. This large, bulky tern with a carrot for a beak is normally of south-east European origin with breeding also occurring up and around the Baltics. Sadly the bird was flying away from the finder and it couldn’t be clinched It was possible that being seen so late in the evening it could of headed to Brownsea to roost with all the Sandwich and Common Terns, but despite much searching with the lagoon webcams it wasn’t found. The good news was that the Marsh Warbler was present again for its 4^th day, singing well at dawn and showing intermittently. On the Brownsea Lagoon 1 Spoonbill was present this evening as were 7+ Avocet which will hopefully result in more nesting attempts. It seems both Sandwich and Common Tern are having a great nesting season with big numbers on all the breeding islands.

Oystercatcher – Lytchett Fields – Ian Ballam