August is renowned for being a great month, especially from mid-August onwards, and Aug 15th couldn’t have landed any better with a whole suit of fantastic birds right across the harbour today. There were a minimum of 7 different Osprey with our family of 5 touring the harbour this AM, including sightings of our juveniles exploring in Middlebere, the Wareham Channel and Lytchett Bay, with 022 see over Lytchett Bay and CJ7 in Middlebere, where there were also 2 un-ringed adults about, an adult female and an adult male. The Forster’s Tern was roosting on Brownsea this AM with c120 Sandwich Tern. Also on the lagoon were 23 Spoonbill, 10 Sanderling, 1 Little Ringed Plover, c100 Dunlin, 4 Greenshank, c30 Common Tern, 1 Turnstone, 6 Bar-tailed Godwit and 6 Curlew. Off Shipstal the 2 Little Tern headed off towards Middlebere and a Common Scoter was out in central harbour. The White-tailed Eagles were off Swineham Point, giving point blank views as we passed on a boat we’d been invited onto. Bodes well for our Osprey (and eagle) boats that start at the end of the week, with 2 trips per day from Aug 18th – Sept 3rd. TO BOOK CLICK HERE. At Swineham there were 2 Cattle Egret roosting on the main gravel pit at the back and a Pochard was on the main pit and various Bearded Tit were pinging in the reedbeds. A Great White Egret flew up Middlebere and on the Swineham scrapes there were 2 Yellow-legged Gull, 1 Green Sandpiper, 2 Egyptian Geese, c20 Black-tailed Godwit, 2 Snipe and there was a lone Marsh Harrier off Swineham Point with a Hobby dashing over there too. On the Arne shoreline in the Wareham Channel a flock of 8 Common Sandpiper were feeding and Whimbrel were dotted around various shorelines on the rising tide. At Lytchett Bay 1 Yellow Wagtail and 3 Tree Pipit passed overhead which heralds the start of the vis-mig season! In Holes Bay a flock of 10 Ringed Plover was a decent site count and there are now already 500+ Black-tailed Godwit back using Holes Bay again. Along the track at Middlebere several Spotted Flycatcher were active and a Redstart was along Soldiers Road.

Female White-tailed Eagle G466 at Swineham Point