With the wind strength doing a complete u-turn this morning, having been blasting gales yesterday, this mornings calm start was a welcome and pleasant start to the day. With Osprey season fast approaching, we took advantage of the days settled weather and started work on nest and Osprey season prep for the coming year. Whilst scaling the main Osprey nest it was a thrill to have close fly-bys of several Mandarin Duck heading up and down the Piddle Valley, as well as 4 Lesser Redpoll and 3 Crossbill passing over, finished off with an adult male Goshawk hunting Wood Pigeons over the nest!!! As long as he sticks to Wood Pigeons. Elsewhere the White-tailed Eagle pair were doing the rounds with visits to Lytchett Bay, Brands Bay and the Wareham Channel. Lytchett Bay had a good raptor day with 3 Red Kite,  2 Marsh Harrier, 1 Hen Harrier and a Peregrine. Having been missing for several days (rather, hiding just outside our harbour boundary in Corfe Mullen), 8 Waxwing were in trees at Nuffield Industrial Estate this morning. The Peregrine pair in Poole were both roosting on the Asda flats. Both are definitely adults, so it looks as if they’ve shoved the younger bird from last years brood out of the territory. There’s still plenty of time for things to get interesting, but to our knowledge, they haven’t yet visited the new nest box installed by Dorset Raptor Group. There were 8 Spoonbill at Shipstal, RSPB Arne and a Spotted Redshank was still in Middlebere.

Adult Peregrine Falcon – Asda flats, Poole – Daniel Nash