The good news is that the 4 Avocet chicks have survived their first few days and are being watched over closely by their parents. The gull pressure this year has eased slightly with the sad news that the UK’s only pure breeding pair on Yellow-legged Gulls were unsuccessful with only one of the adults turning up to breed. This single pair of Yellow-legged Gull made them one of the UK’s rarest breeding birds and they’ve been successfully breeding on Brownsea for over 20 years. There’s a possibility one of the adults could have sadly died, meaning a replacement isn’t likely anytime soon. Breeding Med Gulls were also in short supply on Brownsea this year, possibly down to the protection and improved monitoring of  ‘Gull Islands’ in the Wareham Channel meaning most Med Gulls remained there to breed. The DWT are keeping a close eye on the Avocet chicks but as is standard in these situations, nature will take its course in whichever direction it fancies. The other exciting news today was that the Hobby on the Arne VC camera have hatched young! It will be a fascinating few weeks watching this pair deliver food to their new offspring and we highly recommend heading down there to take a look…the image quality is great and then after you’ve watched those for a while you can go and head out and see Osprey which was also present in Middlebere again. In Poole Harbour west local raptor watcher Peter Hadrill noted the first juvenile Marsh Harrier coming into the area to roost. It’s thought that this would be a juvenile from further afield rather than a local fledgling as there was no nest site confirmed within the harbour this year, although a niggling part of us still wonders that with regular Marsh Harrier activity during the summer, whether this could still potentially be a locally fledged bird from an unknown nest site? At Lytchett Fields there were 4 Common Sandpiper, 2 Greenshank, 2 Green Sandpiper, 2 Dunlin, 1 Kingfisher, 1 juv Willow Warbler and 1 Great Crested Grebe in Lytchett Bay.

Finally, we’ve been able to extract some footage from our CCTV within the pens which shows two of the Osprey chicks feeding and wing flapping quite vigorously. Our team have been constantly monitoring this behaviour since their arrival almost a week ago now. Over time the wing flapping will grow stronger and once we’re happy they’ve grown enough strength in their wings we’ll open up the fronts of the enclosures. We’re still a little way away from that yet but things are currently looking really positive. 

Please follow this link too for a write up from the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation about their involvment in the project up in Scotland – http://www.roydennis.org/2017/07/14/translocation-to-poole/

Osprey chicks feeding and wing flapping 16/07/17