The autumnal gathering of Spoonbill begun on Brownsea today with 2 birds settled on the Tamrisk Island, also logged was 1 Knot, 3 early returning Grey Plover, 45 adult Redshank, 70 Dunlin, 2 Avocet, 3 Ringed Plover, 2 Greenshank, 1 Curlew, 15 Black-tailed Godwit and 2 Common Sandpiper. Ospreys CJ7 and 022 were active over the Wareham Channel, 022 seen intermittently displaying to CJ7 with a fish in his talons which was great to see.

Male Osprey 022 with fish over the Wareham Channel – Alison Copland

Lytchett Fields welcomed the first Ruff of the autumn, along with a Great White Egret, 10 Greenshank, 2 Whimbrel, Common and Green Sandpipers. Two Osprey were observed from Hyde’s Heath, RSPB Arne this morning. Quality over quantity has remained the overriding theme of these early autumn ringing sessions at Lytchett Bay with Stour Ringing Group, with this morning’s session featuring four Grasshopper Warbler‘s and a Reed Warbler that had previously been ringed in France! A couple of Willow Warbler‘s also moving through added some extra diversity. Last night’s Nightjar walk treated the group to close views of a male flying past the group, as well as late appearances from Kestrel, Hobby and 4 Glow Worms.

Osprey – from Hyde’s Heath – Alison Copland

Great White Egret (with Little Egret & Greenshank) – Lytchett Fields – Ian Ballam

Todays cool breeze definitely helped bring the temperature down, and make life a bit more comfortable. More birds appeared today with 2 Great White Egret in the Middlebere Channel with 3 Green Sandpiper in front of the hide and 5 Greenshank also in the channel. At Holes Bay there were 2 Common Sandpiper with another on Hamworthy Beach. Osprey’s CJ7 and 022 were both seen out in the Wareham Channel and juv Cuckoo were seen at Swineham and Hartland. Also at Swineham were 4 Yellow-legged Gull on the scrapes (3 adult and 1 juv) Hobby were logged over Middlebere, Hartland and Arne and there was a Spoonbill off Shipstal.

Great White Egret – Middlebere – Ken (PennHillMan)

Hobby – Middlebere – Ken (PennHillMan)

This wonderful weather sounds like it’s going to come to end come Friday, so we were out today making the most of it. Plenty of highlights with 2 adult Curlew Sandpiper on the Brownsea Lagoon with 5 Common Sandpiper, 5 Greenshank, 55 Dunlin, c50 Redshank and decent numbers of Black-tailed Godwit. It was also a joy to see so many fledged Common and Sandwich Tern dispersed with juvenile Black-headed and Mediterranean Gulls. There also seemed to be an arrival of Little Egret with 13 roosting on the north face of Brownsea, an area we’ve never logged or seen them before. Late July and early August sees peak numbers of Little Egret so plenty could be coming in now and settling in new areas. At Swineham a flock of 9 Common Snipe bombing around was also a strange late July record. There were 2 Egyptian Geese on the Swineham scrape along with an adult Yellow-legged Gull and a juvenile Shoveler Duck and 1 Teal. At Lytchett Fields a Grasshopper Warbler was flushed from the main path, at Studland a Great White Egret is already back at the Little Sea roost and in Brands Bay there were 3 Whimbrel. Above Lower Hamworthy a decent flock of c50 Swift were feeding with 28 over Fleetsbridge and there were 2 Turnstone off Hamworthy Beach.

Stonechat – Swineham

July has absolutely bombed on by, with more and more autumn migrants appearing each day. Today at Lytchett Heath, 3 more passage Sedge Warbler, 1 Grasshopper Warbler and the first Willow Warbler of the autumn for there were ringed. A Red Kite drifted over Studland. In Brands Bay first the 2 Common Gulls of the autumn were with 57 Med Gull which included 2 Juvs, plus there was 1 Whimbrel. At Lytchett Fields a Spoonbill was on the fields again and the Marsh Harrier was seen over the far field. A juvenile Cuckoo was on Slepe Heath. Random sighting of the day was a juv Marsh Tit that showed up in an Upton garden, a species thats almost completely absent from the harbour these days. Where it fledged from is anyones guess but Upton CP would be our first guess? These warm muggy nights have been excellent for Nightjar, with some brilliant displays up on Slepe Heath and around Hartland. With the weather changing later this week it would be worth getting out over the next couple of nights to experience this.

Sedge Warbler – Lytchett Heath 

Another sweltering day, with more birds on the move though. At Lytchett Fields 6 Green Sandpiper were present and what could well have been the first migrant Willow Warbler heading south were seen at Arne, with 3 fresh juveniles logged. A Great White Egret in the Middlebere channel with 2 Spoonbill. Up on Slepe Heath 3 Hobby were really high catching insects, which seemed to be abundant with lots of dragonfly’s and Flying Ants out and about, which also triggered a mass gull feeding frenzy over Poole. Three Peregrine were logged around the Asda/Barclays area with 2 adults and 1 juv seen. In Holes Bay there were 99 Black-tailed Godwit and 64 Redshank from the Stone Bench, plus 20 Little Egret and 2 Grey Heron. After what seemed a slow start for Swallows and House Martins, its great to see quite a few young having now fledged at different sites, and with this hot weather, the sound of screaming Swifts overhead in the late evening has been a wonderful cherry on the cake in warm fading light.

Black-tailed Godwit – Holes Bay – Martin Adams