Hello July! Where the heck come from? Half the year gone already. It only seemed like a few weeks ago that we were all full of anticipation, waiting for the first spring migrants to arrive back and of course, the will they? won’t they? saga of CJ7 and 022 unknown return. And here we are, now in July with an Osprey nest that contains 2 chicks and a breeding for many birds that is now coming to an end. With that in mind, we always like to try and sneak in our first ‘autumn’ ringing session of the season in early July, and true to form, we had some nets open this morning, ready to catch the first batch of juveniles. Todays sessions consisted of mainly local birds, but as July progresses the first passage Grasshopper Warblers, Garden Warblers, Willow Warblers, Sedge Warblers, Redstarts and Tree Pipits will begin making their way south through the UK with numbers building during August. Today we caught 2 new juvenile Kingfisher, 8 juvenile Reed Bunting, 5 Stonechat, 1 Cetti’s Warbler, 2 Blackcap and a mixture of commoner species. Elsewhere, one of the White-tailed Eagles was high over the Wareham Channel around mid-day, and there were 2 Hobby near Norden. At Lytchett Fields the first return passage Greenshank of the season was a colour-ringed individual which seems to be from Norway, and there were also 3 Little Ringed Plover and a party of Crossbill passed over, suggesting they’re now on the move. On Brownsea there was a single Little Tern, but no sign of the Roseate Terns, however there were 50 Black-tailed Godwit back.

Kingfishers at early morning ringing session

Male Stonechat at early morning ringing session