Well, he couldn’t stay away for long having been absent for a day and a half, but male Osprey 022 returned late last night (21:30) from his travels to reunite with CJ7 again. And today, both have been really active on the nest cam throughout the day, mating several times and even still bringing in nesting material. The truth is, it’s almost certainly past the sage where eggs can be laid, and any attempts from here on in are more for bonding rather than to fertilise eggs. Plus, it could be that 022 starts disappearing more often as the season goes on. Just having them both present in the harbour this summer is a privilege in its self so lets enjoy them over the coming months and see what else happens and who else appears!

Also, it was confirmed today that there are still three Peregrine chicks at the Barclays nest site, with two now very visual, running up and down the balcony ledge in a terrifying but quite impressive bout of bravery, with the third seen to be wing flapping from down behind the balcony edge, presumably because it’s not as advance as the other two.

At Studland a Cuckoo was active near South Haven and Hobby flew over Greenlands. There are still 2 dark-bellied Brent Geese in Brands Bay. A couple of events covered a wide range of habitats and species across the harbour today. Our Better Birding, Better Birds walk at Holton Lee treated us to cracking views of a singing Lesser Whitethroat as we scanned the Wareham Channel for Osprey and scanned over the breeding Black-headed and Mediterranean Gull colony. An Osprey was glimpsed near the mouth of the Rivers Frome and Piddle briefly, a Hobby dashed across the heath and a female Kestrel showed wonderfully, hovering right in front of the group. The day was then capped off with a sensational Nightjar walk on Slepe Heath. Despite the ominous mist, we were treated to incredible spectacles including obliging views of Dartford Warbler, prolonged views of Cuckoo being mobbed by a male Stonechat (improved further when a Nightjar began churring right next to us while observing the spat!), and then a male Nightjar flying around briefly and hour before sunset – stunning!

Paul Morton & Joe Parker

Juvenile Peregrine – Barclays – Twitter @twamers