Another beautiful day with Osprey sightings pretty much constant all day. It seemed like a few had left, and in fact we even saw one leave on migration from this afternoons Osprey cruise as it circled up to great height over the Wareham Channel before then making a bee-line south towards the Purbeck ridge. There were at least 7-8 present for the most part of the day though with individuals spread across Lytchett Bay, the Wareham Channel and Middlebere. Female White-tailed Eagle G466 was soaring high above the Wareham Channel too this afternoon and there were 2 Marsh Harrier at Swineham. On the Brownsea Lagoon there were 170+ Ringed Plover, 100 + Dunlin and 47 Spoonbill. 

Osprey – Middlebere – Mark Wright

A lovely sunny day with multiple Osprey sightings across the harbour, including adults and juveniles from the Carey nest. Lytchett Bay has been very productive so far this migration season, with 1 unringed adult catching a fish and heading towards Holton Lee seen from Rock Lea Viewpoint and 1 juvenile practice-diving this morning. 1 adult, likely 022 or CJ7 was seen heading up the Piddle Valley towards the Carey nest. 5R3 managed to venture from the Carey nest today and was seen in the Middlebere Channel. During our Osprey Cruise this afternoon we had up to 6 Osprey including at least 1 juvenile. At one point 3 were seen together, with the two adults both with a fish! On the exposed mud in the Wareham Channel were 2 Spoonbill, c200 Black-tailed Godwit, 11 Greenshank as well as 1 juvenile Peregrine Falcon flying quickly over the Arne shoreline. 1 Great White Egret was also seen earlier in the Wareham Channel. At RSPB Lytchett Fields today there were 2 Spotted Redshank including 1 fresh-in juvenile, 2 Wheatear, and 2 Tree Pipit. The Wood Sandpiper seen yesterday on French’s Pool was back this evening alongside 8 Common Sandpiper and 17 Green Sandpiper.

Osprey with fish – Coombe Heath – @dizzygirl66.bsky.social

Juvenile Osprey from Carey Nest 5R3 – Middlebere Channel – Mark Wright

The first (visual) Wood Sandpiper of the autumn was seen today on Sherford Pools at Lytchett Fields and a Little Stint was on there this evening, plus 1 Spotted Redshank was still in the bay as well. There were several sightings of Osprey in Lytchett Bay throughout the day, as well as an individual at Newton Bay. At Middlebere there were at least 3 Osprey active and at least one of these birds was ringed. Also present was 1 Great White Egret and 16 Spoonbill before the peak of the high tide. 1 Redstart was seen at Parkstone cemetery. Numbers of Wheatear sightings are picking up with several individuals at Godlingstone Heath, Greenlands Farm and Studland.

We had another excellent White-tailed Eagle and Osprey chase in the Wareham Channel from our Osprey Cruise this morning as G463 again forced CJ7 to drop her fish. Neither bird ended up with the fish as it fell in to the reeds near Swineham. There were a further 3 Osprey active in the Wareham Channel along with 1 Great White Egret and 2 Spoonbill. On the Brownsea Lagoon 2 Little Tern were new in, with one being an adult and one a juvenile. There were also 1 Knot, 10 Avocet and 32 Spoonbill. Also, for the first time since his return earlier this summer, 2023 juvenile male Osprey 5H3 visited the Carey nest and was soon seen off by this years young female 5H3. Finally, another juvenile Purple Heron was logged for the harbour today, this time at Swineham GP. Whether it’s the same as the juv that was seen at Little Sea, Studland a few weeks ago is unclear, but this species certainly seems to becoming a more regular (almost annual) occurrence now considering they’ve always been an incredibly rare bird for Poole Harbour.

Wood Sandpiper – Lytchett Fields RSPB – Ian Ballam

Brands bay was busy on a rising tide with growing numbers of Teal (11) and Great-crested Grebes (14). 67 Curlew, 104 Black-tailed Godwit and 64 Mediterranean Gulls were also present.

Lytchett Bay had another unringed Osprey this evening plus a second Osprey that took eight attempts to finally catch a fish! 19 Greenshank and 25 Carrion crow were also recorded here.

Hartland moor was busy with autumn migrants this morning with 10 Spotted flycatchers, 1 Lesser Whitethroat, 4 Blackcap, 4 Woodlark and 1 Redstart. Chiffchaff (10) are beginning to out number Willow warbler (2) as most of the latter would now have migrated.

The Osprey cruises began their morning and afternoon trips today. The morning was on a high tide and 3 Osprey were seen perching in a dead tree on the Arne peninsula. A White-tailed eagle provided distant views as it flew across the Wareham channel. Spoonbill were on the move with 9 seen flying in the Wareham channel and later 36 recorded on the Brownsea lagoon. The Brownsea lagoon had growing numbers of Ringed plover (50), Dunlin and Avocet numbers are now in the 30’s. Two year old male Osprey, 5H3 was also seen and photographed at the mouth of the River Frome.

The afternoon cruise was on a lower tide with good numbers of Black-tailed Godwit, a Greenshank and 6 Great-crested grebes seen in the Wareham channel. A White-tailed eagle briefly flew and landed almost completely camouflaged in a pine tree. Thankfully, a second, more obliging White-tailed Eagle (female G466) was found perched on a low, dead tree. After a few minutes, an adult Osprey was seen mobbing the eagle persistently before heading off to hunt for fish in the Lytchett Bay area. A Peregrine, Hobby and small groups of Whimbrel were also observed whilst cruising around the Wareham channel.

Hobby – Wareham channel – Harry McBride

Greenshank – Wareham channel – Harry McBride

White-tailed Eagle, female G466 – Wareham Channel – Harry McBride

Another busy day in the harbour with tonnes of Osprey action, with 2 over Lytchett Bay including a bird with a blue ring on the left leg ringed 536. This is a 3 year old female from nest 1 at Loch Arkaig, also known as Aurora, who was last seen on July 28th via their webcam! This bird paired up with a male ringed LV0 this year, but they didn’t breed. There were also at least 2 Osprey in the Wareham Channel this afternoon and another at Swineham. Also at Lytchett Bay was 1 Juvenile Peregrine Falcon. At Upton Country Park, there were 2 Spotted Flycatcher active. Spoonbill numbers in the harbour are continuing to build with 34 counted on the Brownsea Lagoon today alongside 30 Avocet, c100 Black-tailed Godwit, and further evidence of Common Terns having second broods this year with 2 very young chicks seen today. 1 Lesser-black Backed Gull with a food-begging juvenile was sat outside the Tern Hide this morning on the Lagoon. 2 Yellow Wagtail were seen on Wareham Common in amongst the cattle.

Lesser-black Backed Gull – Nikki Tutton – Brownsea Lagoon

Osprey (ringed 536 also known as Aurora)- Mark Wright – Lytchett Bay

Another stunning day across the harbour with some new arrivals in evidence. From this mornings Osprey Cruise we had the below juvenile Osprey fly right over the boat, and with a quick inspection of the leg ring through the viewfinder of a camera we initially thought this was 5R3, the young female from the Carey nest this summer. However, Rene Goad uploaded his photos this evening and found that the ring actually read 7R3…..which definitely wasn’t one of our juveniles from the local nests. So, where was it from? A quick call to Tim Makrill for some guidance yielded a quick response where he informed us it was in fact a juvenile male which had fledged from a private site in the Rutland area and was ringed on July 6th. This is a really early migrant juvenile, but proves that Osprey migration is well underway, as we’ve already seen multiple transiting females passing through over the last few weeks. There were 4 other different Osprey in Lytchett Bay this morning which all caught fish, and another was in Middlebere. The White-tailed Eagle pair were both in the Wareham Channel by mid-morning, along with 16 Spoonbill, 8 Greenshank, 1 Marsh Harrier, 10+ Common Tern, c30 Sandwich Tern, c800 Black-tailed Godwit and 6 Ringed Plover. There was a good count of 14 Yellow-legged Gulls out on Arne Moors, on Hartland there were 7 Wheatear, 2 Whinchat and 2 Wheatear. At Lytchett Fields/Bay there were 2 Marsh Harriers, 2 Spotted Redshank, 19 Greenshank, 9 Ringed Plover, 8 Dunlin, 5 Common Sandpiper, 3 Green Sandpiper, 1 Redstart, 1 Tree Pipit, 1 Whitethroat, 2 Yellow Wagtail. There were also 21 spoonbill seen in Middlebere during the afternoon which were likely to be the same as the Wareham Channel birds from this morning. A Barn Owl was also at Lytchett Fields this evening…a rare bird here!

Juv male Osprey 7R3 from private Rutland site – Wareham Channel – Rene Goad

Ring of Juv male Osprey 7R3 from private Rutland site – Wareham Channel – Rene Goad

There’s been a real arrival of Teal in Holes Bay with 60 this morning in the North West Sector along with 5 Whimbrel, 6 Dunlin and 339 Redshank.  At Lytchett Fields on the rising tide there were 1 Spotted Redshank, c20 Greenshank, 2 Green Sandpiper and 2 Common Sandpiper. At Coombe Heath from RSPB Arne there were 2 Osprey, 3 Spoonbill and 1 Great White Egret.

Lots of action from our Osprey Cruise this morning with at least 6 Osprey active with only one of these being a juvenile. We had 3 separate fish catches in the Wareham Channel with one incident where a migrant female Osprey lost her fish to a Great Black-backed Gull, only to go and catch another fish just 10 minutes later! Interestingly the second fish was much smaller and easier to carry off, so no hassle from the gulls. Both White-tailed Eagles were active in the Wareham Channel too along with c200 Black-tailed Godwit feeding on the low tide. On the Brownsea Lagoon the 29 Spoonbill were still roosting at high tide, along with 25 Avocet, c200 Dunlin and c20 Ringed Plover.

There was also a report of 3 Storks/Cranes high over Wareham Causeway, but too distant to identify. Worth keeping an eye out for as they could still be in the area.

Our 2-year old returning male Osprey ‘5H3’ reappeared again last night on a harbour nest platform. It’s a really great sign he keeps returning to the harbour, since his return in June, that he may be looking to set up a nest for next year.

5H3 on nest platform last night