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

A perfect visit to end our series of Morden Bog Dawn Chorus ID Courses this morning with 2 Nightjar logged in broad daylight. A few sequences of the churring song were followed by brief flight views of a male and female coupled with the distinctive co-ick flight calls, probably flushed by a nearby cow. The species-rich visit also enjoyed singing Woodlark, the squeaky song of Common Snipe delivered from a tree, 2 Common Redstart singing & carrying food, 2 vocal Tree Pipit, 2 Yellowhammer and a healthy population of Skylarks, Meadow Pipits, Stonechats and Dartford Warblers. A female Marsh Harrier and single Crossbill also passed overhead to the song of several Cuckoo. There are still 4 dark-bellied Brent Geese in Brands Bay, which will almost certainly now be staying for the summer given the late date. In recent years 1-2 have stayed each summer, possibly due to ill health, but regardless, it’s interesting to see them on blazing warm days rather than on a cold, dark January day. The Brownsea Lagoon had c50 Black-tailed Godwit, 2 Avocet, c50 Oystercatcher, 3 Spoonbill and 4 Dunlin. 

Redstart (male and female) carrying food – Morden Bog Dawn Chorus ID Course

Unfortunate circumstances, but we have just been notified of an impressive movement of a Woodcock we ringed with Stour Ringing Group at the new Dorset Wildlife Trust site Wild Woodbury on 27th Jan 2022 that was shot at Mashino, Tosnenskiy district, RUSSIA — a mere 2,200 km away(!) on 25th April 2022.

Turning to today’s sightings, top of the bill goes to a Golden Oriole singing around 6.30am near the Brownsea Island Villa. A great May bird! The island also featured 4 Spoonbill, c35 Bar-tailed Godwit, c65 Black-tailed Godwit and 2 Red Kite over. While a tern sp. got pulses racing at Lytchett Fields, viewed briefly over the Fields before drifting towards the Holton tree line and heading towards the Wareham Channel. A candidate for Gull-billed Tern, showing short, dark bill, prominent dark trailing edge to primaries and short tail, hopefully the bird will re-appear and an ID can be clinched! Nearby, a calling Coot offered a surprisingly scarce site record. Not quite Poole Harbour, but a slender ringtail harrier species was logged east past Spyway Farm, Langton Matravers mid-afternoon. Montagu’s Harrier certainly worth keeping on the radar at the moment. If you add todays sightings to the Squacco Heron, Black-winged Stilts and Bee-eaters that have all been seen elsewhere in Dorset in the last 24 hours, then there’s certainly a Mediterranean vibe going on at the moment.

Peregrine food pass – Barclay’s Building, Poole – @twamers

Woodcock ringing recovery

Today brought a brilliant record of a singing Nightingale near RSPB Arne, the first to be reported there since 1997. 1 Spoonbill was also reported from Arne, feeding in the Wareham Channel. It was another fine morning for a Morden Bog Dawn Chorus ID Course. Three singing Cuckoo kicked off the event strong, accompanied by a couple of Yellowhammer, Spotted Flycatcher and Dartford Warbler song flights, while Skylark song was near-constant throughout. Two singing Tree Pipits then quickly followed suit, before the group enjoyed wonderful views of singing a Woodlark, 3 Redstart carrying food and a second Spotted Flycatcher! Our last Morden Bog ID Course is taking place this Thursday, and there’s still a couple of places available… more info available here.

A sea watch from Branksome Chine produced 1 Little Tern, several Common Scoter flocks, one of 22 and one of 3 and 1 single Velvet Scoter along with 4 Black Tern that passed quite close in. There were also 40 Sandwich and 30 Common Terns fishing off shore and 2 Dunlin flew west with a Peregrine huntoing out over the sea/beach too.  There were 2 Spoonbill on the Brownsea Lagoon and there are now over 100 Common Tern nests on the lagoon too.

Dartford Warbler – Morden Bog Dawn Chorus ID Course

Redstart (male) – Morden Bog Dawn Chorus ID Course

Woodlark – Morden Bog Dawn Chorus ID Course