Back to the wet stuff today, added with some pretty blowy conditions. Not ideal for our ‘spring’ cruise this AM, but a whole suit of Marsh Harriers put on a good show, plus there were 50+ Sand Martin over Swineham GP with 2 Swallow. On the Brownsea Lagoon a single Spoonbill was hiding from the wind, plus there were 9 Sanderling, c30 Grey Plover, c40 Avocet, 1 Greenshank, c30 Bar-tailed Godwit, 100+ Black-tailed Godwit and 8 Sandwich Tern. There were still at least c100 dark-bellied Brent Geese spread across the area and c20 Red-breasted Merganser. Elsewhere a Hoopoe was reported from a private Poole garden, at Lytchett Fields there were 2 Little Ringed Plover and a Spotted Redshank plus another Little Ringed Plover at Sunnyside. There were 2 Cattle Egret in the Frome Valley near the Wareham bypass causeway and our male Osprey 022 was yet again joined by the flirtatious un-ringed female on the nest cam. The White-tailed Eagles were off Shag Loo spit in the Wareham Channel at dawn and moved to Arne Bay later in the afternoon.

Finally, although our trip around the harbour this morning was only a few hours in total, the good news is that we saw little initial evidence of birds that have been impacted by the oil spill. The Brownsea team did report 15 stained/discoloured birds on the lagoon this morning, so there certainly has been some contact made. The harbour-wide survey we’re conducting on Sunday afternoon will hopefully begin to build a better picture of the true scale of this issue.