The undoubted highlight from today was that a pair of Avocet hatched two chicks on the Brownsea Lagoon. This is wholly significant because they’re (currently) the only Avocet pair in Dorset. A pair bred and hatched young last year too on the lagoon, in fact it looks as if one of this years birds is the same as it has a limp. But sadly the 3 chicks last year were predated by gulls over the course of the following week. Rumour has it that this summer there is also another pair sitting on eggs on the lagoon, so the Dorset population of breeding pairs could have potentially doubled in a single year! George Greens ‘Birds of Dorset’ states that Avocet have bred in the county before but it doesn’t state dates so its safe to say the any previous breeding success are truly historical rather than recent. There were a couple of early returning Little Ringed Plover about too with one on Lytchett Fields and another on Holton Pools with 8 Lapwing, 3 Black-tailed Godwit and 2 Oystercatcher at the latter site too. Hobby were again seen over Slepe Heath, Middlebere and one was further up the Frome Valley near East Holme. 

Little Ringed Plover – Lytchett Fields – Ian Ballam