We hope you’ve all had a decent bank holiday and managed to get involved in to todays action. Below is an overview of sightings from across the Bank Holiday weekend but we have to of course first discuss the incredible Red Kite migration that took place along Southern Dorset today.

It kind of felt like lockdown was building up to this moment with Red Kite being a main feature and focus for many peoples garden lists. To provide some context, it was barely 5 years ago that Red Kite wasn’t even a guaranteed bird on a Poole Harbour year list. However, populations elsewhere in the UK are thriving meaning dispersing, non-breeding birds from those populations move out of their natal areas and go on big spring migratory journey’s, often heading SW. Over the years we’ve seen this migration grow with some days seeing 10-20 Red Kite logged across Poole Harbour in a single day. Well, today blew those totals well out of the water. It started at Lytchett Bay when at around 9am the first one was logged heading SSW, quickly followed by another. Within an hour 15 had been logged and by early afternoon 23. At the same time 8 were logged over Oakdale, 11 over Poole Hospital, 13 over Canford Heath, 14 over Lytchett Matravers, counts of 3-5 over Sandford, Wareham, Studland, 26 over Langton Matravers and a whopping 63 over/past Westbourne. They were literally everywhere with the peak certainly seeming to be between 11am and 12pm, but it suddenly stopped at around 2pm. Its hard to estimate an exact count but it’s safe to assume that several hundred must have moved through the area this morning which is just fantastic and an experience many of you who saw ‘flocks’ of Red Kite today will never forget.

Also in the harbour today were 4 Hobby sightings at Lytchett Bay, a migrant Osprey caught a fish in the Wareham Channel and fed on it somewhere near the mouth of the Frome. Cuckoo are still going for it at Lytchett Bay, Swineham, Hartland Moor and Slepe Heath. A Cattle Egret was in the Frome Valley near the Wareham/Stoborough causeway and further up the Frome Valley Egyptian Geese have increased, and have even decided to breed, which we think may be the first Poole Harbour nesting of this species. The Brownsea Lagoon is now holding 220 Sandwich Terns with 122 sitting on nests, also 110 Common Tern with some beginning to settle and also 1 Med Gull nest. The Swineham area is now holding 47 Reed Warbler, 19 Cetti’s Warbler, 5 Sedge Warbler, 26 Reed Bunting and also 2 Hobby there too.

Also our Osprey nest cam hasn’t only still been providing great footage of CJ7, but also a few ‘extras’ in the shape of a Tawny Owl and posing Nightjar.

Tawny Owl on Osprey Nest Cam