A few interesting snippets today including 7 Cattle Egret on Wareham water meadows, all looking like fresh juveniles, including a couple with dark, black bills still. This suggests they’re really young and it could also indicate local breeding? There have been no reports of Cattle Egret all summer around the harbour, and during our Osprey viewing sessions we’ve only logged Little Egrets heading up and down the river valley’s, so they may have bred slightly further afield? There also seemed to be a mini arrival of Marsh Harrier with 2 in Wytch Lake, 1 in Middlebere and another in the Piddle Valley, as well as the local breeding birds in the Wareham Channel. The first returning Common Snipe of the autumn was at Lytchett Fields.

Cattle Egrets – Wareham/Stoborough causeway