Yesterday evening we hosted our first Purbeck Puffin and Seabird Cruise of the year, and were treated to stunning conditions throughout the trip. Before even leaving Poole Quay we had a Sparrowhawk circling overhead, and passing through the harbour entrance we spotted a flyover Cuckoo transiting between South Haven, Sandbanks, and then on to Brownsea Island. As we departed the harbour and crossed Studland Bay we picked up 2 Arctic Skua harassing Common and Sandwich Terns out in Poole Bay, a real treat! A single adult Peregrine was perched on a ledge south of Old Harry, along with several Shag and Cormorant as a flock of House Martin skimmed the cliff top. The stretch between Durlston and Dancing ledge produced 4 Puffins, 20+ Razorbills, 100+ Guillemot, 8 Fulmar, 20 Kittiwake, and several large flocks of Herring Gull, with a few Great black-backed, Black-headed and single Mediterranean Gull mixed in.

As one series of boats begins another comes to an end, hosting our final Spring Safari Cruise this morning. The undeniable highlight was seeing 1-year-old White-tailed Eagle G801 back on the shores of the Wareham Channel, after her three-week excursion which saw her venture all the way to Yorkshire and back via Kent, Norfolk and Staffordshire (at total distance of 1668km)! It’s very common for young eagles of her age to make these nomadic exploratory journeys, but nonetheless we’re very encouraged by how quickly she returned to Poole Harbour. Other notable species from the boat were Bearded Tit in the Swineham Reedbeds, 2 Lesser Black-backed Gull on the Stilt Pools, 2 Bar-tailed Godwit on the Arne shoreline, and a distant adult Peregrine on the Barclays building in Poole, where at least two juveniles are now visible on the balcony.

Juvenile Peregrine – Barclay’s Building, Poole – Rene Goad

Sunset over Brownsea Lagoon from yesterday’s Puffin Boat – Brittany Maxted

Brownsea Lagoon featured 2 Little Terns in the morning, with an afternoon visit producing singles of Avocet, Yellow-legged Gull, Ringed Plover, 12 Dunlin, 15 Sanderling, 2 Turnstone and 86 lingering Black-tailed Godwit. The gull and tern survey logged 160 Common Tern nests, 190 Sandwich Tern nests (10 chicks), 164 Black-headed Gull nests (103 chicks) and 15 Great Black-backed Gull nests (13 chicks). Middlebere Channel offered 3 Spoonbill and another lone Avocet while a Red Kite drifted north over Holes Bay mid-morning.

Spoonbill (first-summer) – Middlebere – Kate Plater

Yesterday’s Alpine Swift lingered around briefly into this morning, showing well just south of Old Harry until 08:20am before being lost to view high over sea. Elsewhere, 5 Red Kite were picked up circling south of Bere Regis at Dorset Wildlife Trust’s new site Wild Woodbury and a White-tailed Eagle was logged at RSPB Arne around 1pm and again from Middlebere at 1:50pm.

It’s half-term next week and to celebrate we’re running another Children’s Workshop with Careys Secret Garden to celebrate all things wild as part of their ‘Nurture with Nature’ series, a great opportunity for children to get excited about the natural world. Our 1.5-hr workshop taking place on Wednesday 1st June is aimed at getting children up close and face-to-face with nature, focusing on the fascinating lives of birds, how we can identify them and why they are so important, all brought to life with a private bird ringing demonstration! Discover more and book your places here »

Kingfisher – Birds of Poole Harbour Children’s Workshop

The undoubted highlight today was Poole Harbours 6th record of Alpine Swift, and the first in nearly 20 years. We received a message around lunchtime of a mystery large swift flying around Old Harry at 11am with a white belly which sounded too intriguing not to go and check out, with the description sounding perfect for Alpine Swift. Upon arrival a few House Martin were bombing about, when almost immediately a large, pointy winged swift scythed through the martins, showing pure white underparts. A stunning Alpine Swift!! It spent from 11am until at least 8pm tearing up and down the same stretch of cliff, often feeding within 1m-2m of the building crowd of onlookers. A truly spectacular bird in a stunning setting with Old Harry as the back drop. There were 2 summer-plumaged Cattle Egret in the Lower Frome Valley and from our Spring Safari Cruise this morning a 1st summer Little Gull was in the mouth of the Frome near Swineham. There were also 3 Marsh Harrier around the Wareham Channel and an Osprey was seen in the Wareham Channel early doors around 6:30am.

Alpine Swift – Old Harry – Paul Morton

Alpine Swift – Old Harry – Paul Morton

Alpine Swift & onlookers – Old Harry – Paul Morton

Alpine Swift – Old Harry – Rob Johnson (Twitter – @RobJohn72810618)

Alpine Swift – Old Harry – James Leaver (Twitter – @BirderOtbt)

Alpine Swift – Old Harry – Mark Wright (Twitter @markwright12002)

The wind and rain downed a few migrant waders this morning including 2 new Ringed Plover on Lytchett Fields and a Little Ringed Plover. At South Haven there were 3 Ringed Plover and 5 Sanderling and on the Brownsea Lagoon 1 Avocet, 1 Grey Plover, 6 Ringed Plover, 21 Dunlin, 6 Sanderling, 2 Turnstone, Bar-tailed Godwit 1 and 86 Black-tailed Godwit. Last night 5 Puffin were seen off Dancing Ledge which is great news as this Saturday is our first Puffin cruise of the season which is sold out, however, due to increased demand we’ve put on a couple of extra Puffin trips which can be booked on to here – https://www.birdsofpooleharbourbookings.co.uk/event/puffin

Puffins – Dancing Ledge – Garry Hayman

A quieter day, but the Peregrines on Barclays are doing really well, with regular watchers logging lots of interesting behaviour, including multiple food deliveries to the chicks. This is a great spectacle to be experiencing in the centre of town, with the pavement just outside the main entrance being one of the best places to watch. At Slepe Heath this morning there was a single Cuckoo calling and 2 Willow Warbler were along the Arne Road. Up on Ballard some more Swifts were arriving in with a couple of small parties of 10+ coming in off the sea. We logged an interesting behaviour from female Osprey CJ7 yesterday while male 022 was incubating. She was soaring high over the nest and went into a semi-display mode, sky dancing and tumbling, which Tim Mackrill explained to us was often performed by female Ospreys when a rival female could be seen near to the territory. This suggests there could well have been another Osprey around briefly near the nest site.

Peregrine – Barclays House – Holes Bay Nature

We’ve now entered ‘hatch week’. The week that could potentially see CJ7’s and 022’s first egg hatch. The likely dates will be either May 28th or 29th, but could realistically run into next week too. Regardless, we’ll all be watching for a change in behaviour over the weekend and keeping our fingers crossed for another significant moment in this incredibly exciting year.

It seemed to be another Red Kite day with 6 kettling over Ballard and another over Lytchett Fields this morning.  A stunning adult Yellow-legged Gull made an appearance on our Middlebere nest cam. The Brownsea Lagoon hosted a 2nd summer Spoonbill, 2 Avocet and c95 Black-tailed Godwit.

Yellow-legged Gull – Middlebere nest platform

Great news today when the first Peregrine Falcon chick poked its head out over the top of the nesting balcony at Barclays. Always a great moment when the first signs of life appear…..but how many will it be this year? It was also another Red Kite day with multiple birds over several sites including 3 over Slepe Heath, 2 over Upton, 1 over Lytchett Minster and 1 over Arne. Nightjar are all in fine voice across all the harbour heathlands and there were still Cuckoo calling up on Slepe Heath and at Hartland.

Peregrine Falcon chick – Barclays house – Rene Goad

A drizzly start to the day, but it brightened up in the end. From our School Bird Boat this morning, the highlights including 2 Spoonbill seen on the Brownsea lagoon, along with the bustling activity from the Sandwich and Common Terns.

It’s been nice to have some hirundine activity reported today, with small numbers of Swallows and House Martins over Arne, as well as 23 House Martin over Upton Heath. Lows numbers of Swift were also reported over Arne, though it’s a common misconception that Swifts fall into the hirundine family. Swifts instead have their own taxonomic family, Apodidae, of which there is only one species native to the UK. They are not closely related to Swallows and Martins, only being superficially similar rather than genetically; a lovely example of convergent evolution!

We’ve also released a new Osprey blog this morning, with an update about the incubation and identifying the difference in facial markings between 022 and CJ7. You can read the blog here.

Photo of a male Redstart taken on our Morden Bog ID Course yesterday – Andy Collyer

Identification illustrations of CJ7 and 022 from our recent blog