That’s better. The cold wind soon moved off and the blanket of warmth returned. There were plenty of interesting finds and reports from the last couple of days with confirmed breeding of Little Ringed Plover at the Holme Lane GP with a juv and 2 adults seen, along with 11 Egyptian Geese, 4 Lapwing, 2 of which were fledged juveniles and 5 Little Grebe. From Slepe Heath 2 Hobby were seen and there were 2 Cuckoo still calling. On the Brownsea Lagoon there were 3 Spoonbill and up to 5 Avocet are now (potentially) sitting on eggs, which is a great result! Lets hope they can collectively bring some young off. Female Osprey CJ7 was seen at Morden Bog by several people and photographed flying right overhead. The female Marsh Harrier was out over Giggers Island but sadly the male she got friendly with a couple of weeks ago has now moved on. Post breeding groups of Mistle Thrush are now beginning to form with flocks of between 5 and 15 appearing on different heathland sites around the harbour. At Lytchett Fields there’s still 2 Little Ringed Plover, also c15 Lapwing including the first juv of the ‘autumn’ to arrive on site. There was an interesting gathering of 33 Sanderling roosting on the end of Redhorn, which is a late date (and high total) for this species in the harbour. Finally and rather randomly, this handsome Fulvous Whistling Duck has appeared in Poole Park and seems to be attracting a small crowd!

Fulvous Whistling Duck – Poole Park – Clare Slade