What a stunner of a day, with 20 degree’s registering on the car dashboard thermometers. This got the dragonflies and damselflies active, and therefore the Hobby’s too as they sought after a much needed meal after a couple of damp days. There were 3 active over Hartland Moor, 2 over Hyde’s Heath, RSPB Arne and 2 in the Piddle Valley. A Great White Egret was at Holmebridge with a Marsh Harrier over there too and 9 Red Kite. The White-tailed Eagle pair were on Shag Looe in the Wareham Channel, before then being seen over Swineham where there was also a Little Ringed Plover. This morning we surveyed the gull islands in the Wareham Channel for the Black-headed and Mediterranean Gulls. This mornings survey was an on foot survey, carried out under license and on Thursday morning we’ll be carrying out an official drone survey of the same colony to compare which set of data yields the best results whilst causing the least amount of disturbance. We’ll update on this when we get the full results. There were Cuckoo’s at Lytchett Fields, Hyde’s Heath, the Wareham Channel and the Brownsea Lagoon. There was also a Garden Warbler at Lytchett Fields and the 12 Whimbrel remained in the field at Sunnyside. This evening we hosted our first Puffin Cruise of the season which yielded 3-4 Puffin at Dancing Ledge, with the trip between Old Harry and Dancing Ledge producing c15 Kittiwake, c10 Gannet, 4 Fulmar c1000 Guillemot, c10 Razorbill and several small groups of Swallow arriving in off the sea.

Puffin – Dancing Ledge – Michael Caponi