Today’s icy blast was a shock to the system compared to last weeks very welcome warm spell. As seems common practice now, the day started off with….yep, you guessed it….a Red Kite, this one over Lytchett Bay again. A Black Redstart was in Somerby Road, Oakdale and in Holes Bay a 60 tardy Wigeon were lingering on and the Brownsea Lagoon was still busy with 2000+ Black-tailed Godwit, low numbers of Avocet and c10 early returning Sandwich Tern. The wind is due to ease off again by Tuesday meaning we can all get back to sky/garden watching again pretty soon, and with Swallows, House Martins and other passerines all arriving during April, we can carry on bolstering our lockdown garden lists.

It was also April 1^st 2019 when female Osprey CJ7 arrived back into the harbour and began showing real interest in Middlebere nest platform. She spent many days being active on that nest before another larger female came along at the end of April and booted her off before CJ7 then came back again in May. The larger female then arrived back later in the summer whilst CJ7 decided she preferred a nest platform elsewhere in the harbour. Well….April 1^st is this Wednesday! Will she be back on time? To help build excitement, Brittany Maxted, our Osprey project officer has put together a great film which includes all the still images taken by our trigger camera that was set up on the Middlebere nest last year.