With a strengthening wind building and some light drizzle, it was quite a contrast today compared to the last week. The unsettled weather is delivering more waders each day though. In Lytchett Bay this morning the first freshly arrived juvenile Greenshank of the autumn pitched down, with a mix of juvenile and adult Common Redshank. Common Sandpipers also appearing in more numbers with 2 at Swineham, 1 in Lytchett Bay and 3 on the Brownsea sea wall. Also at Swineham on the stilt Pools were a mixed flock of both Common and Little Ringed Plover, along with a summer plumaged Cattle Egret. On the Brownsea Lagoon last night c20 newly arrived summer plumaged Dunlin were feeding in amongst the many hundreds of newly fledged Common and Sandwich Tern. Male Osprey 022 was on fire yesterday, not only catching 2 different fish within 15 minutes of one another during our Sunset Safari Cruise last, but also managing to catch 2 small ‘school Bass’ at once, then skilfully delivering them to the nest as if arriving on waterskis! There was also another osprey in Lytchett Bay for most of the day, presumably the unidentified tatty individual from a few days ago. Both adult White-tailed Eagles were hunting out in the Wareham Channel on and off during the day, there were 4 Spoonbill on the Brownsea Lagoon, a Cuckoo was at Swineham and the Swineham Marsh Harrier pair carried out several food passes to their TWO freshly fledged young.

Male Osprey 022 delivering 2 fish at once yesterday afternoon

The heatwave certainly continued today, but that didn’t curb any activity in the harbour. Pretty spectacular scenes from our Summer Safari Cruise this morning with the White-tailed Eagle pair continuing to be active in the Wareham Channel, using the gull breeding islands as a food source. The adult female G466 was first sat, ironically, on a no-landing sign on the RSPB Arne shoreline with the male G463 sat on a tree close by. They then took off and began hunting together over the gull islands, putting up a huge cloud of gulls, terns, cormorants and geese! They were unsuccessful on this occasion, but we had earlier seen male Osprey 022 catch a fish succesfully in the Wareham Channel. 1 Osprey was also sat in dead trees at Middlebere from Coombe Heath later this afternoon. Number of waders do seem to be increasing each day with early returning/passage c50 Curlew and c40 Black-tailed Godwit in the Wareham Channel. On the Brownsea Lagoon there were 3 Common Sandpiper, c20 Black-tailed Godwit, 3 Greenshank and 4 Spoonbill. 2 Spotted Redshank were still in Lytchett Bay from Rock Lea viewpoint.

There’s been lots of great activity on our recent Summer Safaris and Sunset Safari Cruises with now being a great time to see the White-tailed Eagles taking advantage of the breeding gulls. There’s a few tickets left for the upcoming weeks if you’d like to join us, book here.

Female White-tailed Eagle G466 – from our Summer Safari Cruise this morning in the Wareham Channel, RSPB Arne Shoreline – Christopher Robinson

The mini heatwave certainly hit today, but combined with a building SE breeze, it kept it cool enough to enjoy the birding, rather than having to retreat for an iced tea. The birding was steady, but saw another increase in Black-tailed Godwit arrive back with c100 in the Wareham Channel and c50 in Lytchett Bay. Also in Lytchett Bay this morning, female Osprey 6C6 was in the dead tree opposite Rock Lea View again and there were also 23 Redshank, 1 Spotted Redshank, 1 Greenshank and a Marsh Harrier across the site. The Brownsea Lagoon held 2 Common Sandpiper, 4 Spoonbill, 8 Black-tailed Godwit and a mass of newly fledged juvenile Common and Sandwich Tern. In the Wareham Channel male Osprey 022 caught several fish during the day and male White-tailed Eagle G463 was hunting later in the afternoon. Last night we headed out along the Purbeck coast to see if we could see the Puffins before they left for the summer. Alas, they had either left already or were hiding incredibly well. We did see quite a few Common Guillemot and Razorbill still on the Durlston Ledges but best of all was a Sunfish which passed close to the boat off Swanage Bay.

Sunfish – Swanage Bay – Stephen Smith

Sunfish – Swanage Bay – Stephen Smith

A stunning start to the day today with our Carey Osprey chicks being ringed, and incredibly it was almost anther clean sweep of males. The eldest chick, which we ringed 5R3 was a whopping 1.7kg which clearly indicates a female weight, where as the other three were all sub 1.5kg which indicates males. Great news considering we’re now already beginning to see young males of ours return with 2023 chick 5H3 being recorded for the first time yesterday. He was once again in Lytchett Bay flirting quite heavily with the new female 6C6, so there definitely seems to be ‘something’ there. The gull islands in the Wareham Channel took a bit of a hammering today with visits from Marsh Harrier, Sparrowhawk, Goshawk, Peregrine and both adult White-tailed Eagles! The latter of which was viewed from our Summer Safari Cruise this morning as both G466 and G463 both took juvenile gulls from the islands. On the Brownsea Lagoon 2 migrant Common Sandpiper were on the sea wall and 4 Spoonbill and 3 Avocet were on the lagoon with even more newly fledged juvenile Common and Sandwich Terns. At Lytchett Fields the 2 Spotted Redshank were still on the fields.

Carey Osprey chicks 2025

5R3 – 1.75kg – female
5R4 – 1.44kg – male
5R5 – 1.45kg – male
5R6 – 1.35kg – male

Yesterday, 1 out of the 2 new Ospreys in the harbour were identified – a female ringed 6C6 from Lancashire. However, we were still waiting to confirm the identity of the second Osprey. We had incredible news this morning, when the individual was photographed… 5H3!! 5H3 is a male from our Carey Osprey nest, hatching in 2023. This is the first returning wild born male from the Carey nest! We’ve been waiting and waiting to see if any of the three chicks from that year would return, and this is the first time we’ve seen him back. Fingers crossed, he’ll pair up with 6C6, and could make up the third pair in southern England next year. Fantastic work by Mark Wright in photographing and identifying both birds. Elsewhere in the harbour, 2 White-tailed Eagle, 1 Marsh Harrier, and 8+ Curlew were seen from Coombe Heath. There were up to 4 Spotted Flycatcher active at Holton Heath this morning and 2 stunning Spotted Redshank were seen in Lytchett Bay this morning.

Male Osprey 5H3 (hatched 2023) – Mark Wright

Feamle adult White-tailed Eagle G466 – Coombe – @dizzygirl66.bsky.social

Spotted Flycatcher – Holton Heath – @borneokirb.bsky.social

Summer plumaged Spotted Redshank – Lytchett Bay – Garry Hayman