August is great isn’t it! A real month of variety and quality and no better way to highlight this than to pull an Aquatic Warbler out of a mist net. This is what happened at Lytchett Fields this morning when an adult female was caught and ringed during a ringing session hosted by Stour Ringing Group. These small but striking relations to the Sedge Warbler are the rarest and only globally threatened passerine in mainland Europe, with a small global population of only c10,000 pairs. In spring their migration is a direct south to north passage from central Africa to breeding grounds in Eastern Europe, however their autumn migration takes a much more westerly route which, if we have the right wind conditions, bring them here to the UK, mainly along the south and south east coast. Today’s was the first to be logged in the UK this year and with a good easterly air flow set to continue a few more could turn up in due course. Also caught during the same ringing session were 5 Kingfisher, 38 Sedge Warbler, 2 Grasshopper Warbler and 10 Reed Warbler. That seemed to kick start the day when a Cattle Egret was seen heading up the Piddle Valley with another 2 at Swineham GP on the stony island. There were 3 Osprey in the Wareham Channel at dawn and later one was on a Middlebere T-perch feeding and another was seen to catch a fish in Lytchett Bay. Wader totals on Lytchett Fields were impressive too with 10 Common Sandpiper, 15 Greenshank and 12 Green Sandpiper, with a Wheatear there too. At Upton CP a Ruff was reported off the Stone Bench which would be the first for the autumn and there were 200 Redshank and 290 Black-tailed Godwit. A different ringing session in the west of the harbour (which didn’t catch an Aquatic Warbler) was still busy and the variety highlighted what’s passing through the harbour currently with Tree Pipit, Garden Warbler, Grasshopper Warbler, Reed Warbler, Sedge Warbler, Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff and Nightjar all caught and ringed in the early hours. At Middlebere the rising tide saw an adult male Marsh Harrier spook 8 Greenshank out of the channels and the presumed summer plumaged Golden Plover ‘sp’ conundrum may have been solved when a summer plumaged Grey Plover appeared in the same area the following day. Finally, with some great underwing flight shots of yesterdays Osprey in Middlebere, we’ve come to the conclusion that the un-ringed female currently using that area is our old friend ‘Beaky’, the adult female that has now used Middlebere as a ‘stop off’ site for the last 2 years.

Aquatic Warbler – Lytchett fields – Shaun Robson

Presumed Female Osprey ‘Beaky’ – Middlebere – Simon Kidner

Summer plumaged Grey Plover – Middlebere – Simon Kidner

Another sweltering day with some more good finds early on. A Cattle Egret was once again roosting on the islands at Swineham GP and an Osprey was fishing just off Swineham Point at sunrise. Another Osprey was active in Middlebere late afternoon and opted to sit on the small t-perches next to the Middlebere nest as apposed to the nest it’s self. Two ringing sessions were carried out early doors, one at Lytchett Heath which saw 30 Sedge Warbler, 20 Reed Warbler, 7 Willow Warbler and 1 Tree Pipit ringed, then in the west of the harbour near the mouth of the Piddle, 2 Nightjar were caught and ringed along with 1 Grasshopper Warbler, 4 Tree Pipit and small numbers of Sedge Warbler. Finally, we received a phone call from our friends at the Dyfi Osprey project this afternoon informing us that our 2018 female Osprey 014 is now back at their nest, flirting with 2 males, one from Scotland and another from the Lake District. She was only in Devon a couple of weeks ago, highlighting just how much these non-breeding Osprey like to move about the UK!

Poole female Osprey 014 on Dyfi Project nest cam in Wales

Tree Pipit – Lytchett Heath

This heat wave isn’t easing up but the easterlies that come with it will surely, hopefully bring some goodies along with it. This morning 9 Spoonbill arrived in from the west, following the Wareham Channel before touching down on the Brownsea Lagoon. This is a typical pattern for early August, with Spoonbill having been seen ‘arriving’ into the harbour in previous years around this date, before numbers begin to build throughout the rest of August, September and up to mid October. Also in the west of the harbour a great count of 5 Marsh Harrier were logged leaving the roost which is the best early August total for a number of years. At Lytchett Bay/Fields the wader numbers were slow to build with just 15 Black-tailed Godwit, 21 Green Sandpiper, 3 Common Sandpiper, 1 Spotted Redshank and the returning colour-ringed Greenshank which has now returned and been present for the last 3-4 winters. The Brownsea Lagoon saw 111 Common Redshank, 8 Avocet and c60 Dunlin. A Great White Egret was reported at Shipstal Point Arne. A report of a summer plumaged Golden Plover early evening at Middlebere was enough to get pulses raising, but despite some searching it sadly couldn’t be relocated. Although not impossible for Golden Plover to turn up in early August, it would be extremely unusual and with the gripping situation of the Brands Bay American Golden Plover sticking in our minds that was discovered in a similar way back in 2018 it was worth going to investigate at the very least! Despite the no show, a group of 6 Spotted Redshank in the Middlebere Channel were some compensation.

Sandwich Tern – Studland Bay

What a weekend with a fantastic range of species right across the area. New for the autumn today was an adult Curlew Sandpiper in Holes Bay north, feeding with Redshank. Our second Osprey watching session at Ham Common saw 2-3 Osprey grace us with their presence with 2 fairly active at the far end of the Wareham Channel for most of the morning. In the Arne car park a group of 7 Spotted Flycatcher were feeding together and at Lytchett Fields/Bay some good totals of waders including 26 Green Sandpiper, 2 Common Sandpiper, 1 Spotted Redshank, and 7 Greenshank. Surprise of the day were 5 Cattle Egret that lifted from the Lytchett Fields area and flew NW towards the Bakers Arms roundabout. Osprey passed over Holton Lee/Lytchett Fields this evening as well as a ragged looking Marsh Harrier. Passerine migration was a little slower today but the Lesser Whitethroat was at Lytchett Heath and a ringing session in the west of the harbour produced 2 Grasshopper Warbler, 4 Sedge Warbler, 1 Spotted Flycatcher, 1 Common Whitethroat and a Nightjar.

We’ve also created a ‘This is your Life’ video which introduces CJ7 and provides more detail on this new lady in town. You can watch the full video below

Cattle egret – Lytchett Bay – Ian Ballam