Firstly, we’d like to give our sincere apologies for not being able to update our sightings page over the last 2 weeks. We recently upgraded our server and in doing so ‘a glitch’ occurred preventing us from accessing our sightings page to be able to update it each day. We’ve now finally got to the bottom of the issue (for now), and still have a couple bugs to sort out, but at least we can now access the site and do all the updates needed to get us going again!!

Right…back to the birds. It’s a real raptor-fest at the moment with good numbers of birds of prey around. Several watches around the south of the harbour today resulted in 4 Merlin (1 on off the sea at Middle Beach, 1 over Godlingston, 1 on Arne Moors and 1 on Hartland), 1 Goshawk over Godlingston, 4 Marsh Harrier at Swineham, 2 Hen Harrier around Swineham and Middlebere, 1 Red Kite over the Wareham Channel and 1 White-tailed Eagle over Hydes Heath, Arne. Add in the Common Buzzards, Sparrowhawks, Kestrels and (not-logged today) Peregrines, then there’s a great mix of raptors to connect with currently. A sea watch off Branksome chine produced 1 Black-throated Diver, 2 Common Scoter, 4 Sandwich Tern, 5+ Kittiwake, 10+ Gannet and 20+ auk sp (mainly Razorbill). From the Studland Road viewpoint a Swallow headed SW and there was a slow, but steady passage of Linnet, Siskin, Skylark and Pied Wagtail going on above the harbour for most of the day. There were 5 different Black Redstart around with 2 on the Knoll Beach cafe roof with 2 more on the NT office roofs in the Ulwell Gap, plus 1 more on the Shell Bay ferry toll buildings. A whopping 708 sinensis Cormorant were counted on Brownsea before they all headed off, out to feed in the harbour. At Lytchett Fields there were 2 Curlew Sandpiper, 1 Spotted Redshank, 1 Ruff and 2 Green Sandpiper. Finally, on Brownsea there were 54 Spoonbill and a single Black-necked Grebe was off Jerry’s Point.

Greenshank – Brownsea Lagoon – Martin Adams