This heat wave isn’t easing up but the easterlies that come with it will surely, hopefully bring some goodies along with it. This morning 9 Spoonbill arrived in from the west, following the Wareham Channel before touching down on the Brownsea Lagoon. This is a typical pattern for early August, with Spoonbill having been seen ‘arriving’ into the harbour in previous years around this date, before numbers begin to build throughout the rest of August, September and up to mid October. Also in the west of the harbour a great count of 5 Marsh Harrier were logged leaving the roost which is the best early August total for a number of years. At Lytchett Bay/Fields the wader numbers were slow to build with just 15 Black-tailed Godwit, 21 Green Sandpiper, 3 Common Sandpiper, 1 Spotted Redshank and the returning colour-ringed Greenshank which has now returned and been present for the last 3-4 winters. The Brownsea Lagoon saw 111 Common Redshank, 8 Avocet and c60 Dunlin. A Great White Egret was reported at Shipstal Point Arne. A report of a summer plumaged Golden Plover early evening at Middlebere was enough to get pulses raising, but despite some searching it sadly couldn’t be relocated. Although not impossible for Golden Plover to turn up in early August, it would be extremely unusual and with the gripping situation of the Brands Bay American Golden Plover sticking in our minds that was discovered in a similar way back in 2018 it was worth going to investigate at the very least! Despite the no show, a group of 6 Spotted Redshank in the Middlebere Channel were some compensation.

Sandwich Tern – Studland Bay