Having now spent a month in the harbour, it seems the Forster’s Tern is enjoying it’s time here having holidayed initially in Baiter then Poole Park, before settling on Brownsea for a while (why not?) and now it’s taking in the sights and scenes of Holes Bay having been here for several days in Holes Bay south. It will almost certainly head off some time in April, but it’s been great to have around, with the opportunity for birders to ‘bump’ into this mega rarity literally anywhere. There were more Osprey arrivals/transiting through today with an intruder Osprey visiting the harbour nest, plus an adult female was seen hunting in Middlebere this afternoon which then went and settled on the Middlebere Channel nest platform for 7 hours, eating her monster Sea Bass. Just outside the harbour the recent roaming White Stork was seen, this time over Corfe Mullen, seen heading west, so it could have been harbour bound? Off Middle Beach, Studland the sum plum Black-necked Grebe was still present as was the Common Scoter and 1 Great Northern Diver. Very small numbers of Swallow were moving north again.

Un-ringed adult female Osprey near RSPB Arne – Mark Wright

Un-ringed adult female Osprey near RSPB Arne, Middlebere – BoPH monitoring cam

The day started off calm, but soon turned grey, cold and windy, but it seemed some migrants were getting through including the first decent ‘pulse’ of Osprey. Although a number have already been logged this spring, and of course our pair returned earlier in the week, today was the first time we logged them from one of our Spring Safari cruises and were definite staging migrants. Firstly we found this stunning adult female perched up on the edge of the Wareham Channel before she then got hassled by a Carrion Crow and dissappeared off towards Middlebere. We also saw a more distant individual towards Middlebere then later in the trip logged our local male 022 heading up the Piddle Valley with a fish. Later on this afternoon during the March WeBS count, another adult female Osprey was seen catching a fish between Middlebere and Ower and hauled it’s fish up on to the mud to feed. No doubt there will be plenty more over the coming weeks. Also logged from our Spring Safari this AM were a number of Swallow coming in from the south, passing through north, a lone Spoonbill was flying over Arne, Brownsea had a good number of Mediterranean Gull and Sandwich Tern moving about plus c50 Avocet still, a Little Gull was in the Wareham Channel, c300 Black-tailed Godwit were in the Wareham Channel and 2 Marsh Harrier were over Swineham. Elsewhere a lone summer plumaged Black-necked Grebe was in Studland Bay with 1 Common Scoter. In Brands Bay/Jerry’s Point there were still 2 Great Northern Diver, 5 Red-breasted Merganser and 1 White-tailed Eagle was in Brands Bay, with another White-tailed Eagle seen over Lytchett Bay where there was 2 Spotted Redshank and 1 Ruff. 

Osprey seen from our Spring Safari this AM – Wareham Channel – Sam Roberts

Osprey seen from our Spring Safari this AM – Wareham Channel – Sam Roberts

Well, it’s getting to that time of year where Ospreys feature a bit more regularly in our sightings report, and although there are still lots yet still to arrive back,. late March and early April is a great time to encounter migrant Osprey passing through or one of the local pair out fishing. Today there were sightings of Osprey (probably mainly relating to our male 022) in the Wareham Channel and in Lytchett Bay, plus a migrant Osprey was seen heading over Branksome Recreation Group, heading towards the harbour. Just outside Poole, in Winton a White Stork flew low over the town and was also seen headed towards the harbour, and if that madness wasn’t enough….at 11:30am this morning there were 5 White-tailed Eagle seen soaring high above RSPB Arne with 1 Marsh Harrier. My my, how times have changed. On Brownsea today the adult Yellow-legged Gull was seen again on the lagoon and there were 2 Spoonbill there again.

Osprey – Lytchett Bay – Alison Copland

After yesterdays battering, it was a day of excitement today rather than a day of extreme weather! As soon as the wind eased last night we saw the return of our breeding female Osprey CJ7. The question was, how long would she have to wait for her mate 022? The answer was not very long…..12 hours in fact. No sooner had the sun risen this morning when male Osprey 022 arrived at the nest with a huge Bass, having been seen catching the fish in the mouth of the River Piddle as he made his way back to the nest, touching down at 06:40. Not only did he return, we also had our first intruding Osprey visit this afternoon, which neither CJ7 or 022 seemed to bothered about, and it seems that bird was later seen at Morden Bog too. Around lunchtime 2 Common Crane were seen heading in high from the east, and were seen circling high above RSPB Arne Moors before disappearing off north, whilst at the same time a White-tailed Eagle was hunting on the Moors, and flushed 2 Spoonbill, whilst 2 Red Kite and a Goshawk had a fight high over head! There was obviously a mini fall this AM too with 4 Willow Warbler at the PCW Drain and 2 more at Hatch Pond. Some tardy ‘winter’ species of note were singles of both Fieldfare and Lesser Redpoll at Carey Secret Garden. At Swineham the Little Ringed Plover count was 5, plus there were singles of Swallows logged at Swineham, Sunnyside and Middlebere and on Brownsea an adult Yellow-legged Gull was on the Brownsea Lagoon.

Female Osprey CJ7 (left) and male 022 (right) re-bonding after 7 months apart

With all the glorious weather recently, we were quite surprised that none of our Ospreys had returned during that period. We were even more surprised today that during a whole day of force 6 gales, one of our breeding pair suddenly landed on the nest! This evening at 18:30 our female Osprey ‘CJ7’ landed back which is great news and always a welcome relief. We just need to see how long it takes male 022 to come back now!

The strong winds made birding really difficult today, but did produce a juvenile White-tailed Eagle in Brands Bay, 3 Spoonbill on the Brownsea Lagoon, and this morning, (possibly predicting the forecast), the Forster’s Tern was found hunkered down on a salt marsh in Holes Bay south. This evening with the wind having died down quite a bit there were c250 Sand Martin at Swineham and 2 Bearded Tit were at Swineham Point.

It looks like it’s potentially going to be a bit of a late spring this year. As we all wait for various migrants to arrive back, a good indication of how late things are already was the arrival of the well known Rutland Osprey pair which got back to their nest site this morning nearly 2-weeks later than their arrival date last year. The strong northerly winds that are set in now for the next week will restrict things further, and we’ve even heard the word ‘snow’ in a recent weather report!!!

That said there were a couple of new arrivals this morning with 2 Ruff, one at Lytchett Fields and another on the Stilt Pools at Swineham, where there were also 5 Little Ringed Plover. On Wareham Common the 3 Glossy Ibis were feeding just off the by pass, and were joined by a Great White Egret. The Brownsea Lagoon now has 4 Eurasian Spoonbill and a Northern Wheatear was on the lagoon wall. Other ‘Spring’ migrants included 8 Sand Martin at Swineham GP and a Swallow over Studland Beach.

Ruff – Lytchett Fields – Mick Brooks

It was a misty, hazy day across the harbour today, with a subtle building breeze. We’ve been basking in sunshine for the last 4 days, but things are about to turn and get rather windy during the rest of the week. Will these winds see some migrants get grounded? Perhaps a few more Northern Wheatear or Osprey?

Today logged the 3 Glossy Ibis, 3 White-tailed Eagle (Wareham Common, Middlebere and the Wareham Channel), 1 Spotted Redshank in Middlebere and there are still good numbers of Cattle Egret around with 71 seen heading towards the Swineham roost this evening. It’s also very, very noticeable how ‘regular’ (not quite common yet) Red Kite are these days with sightings logged pretty much every day so far this calendar year, with sightings increasing in recent days as birds start moving around, building towards the big migration later in April/May. It seems it won’t be long until these stunning, large birds of prey become a permanent fixture of our harbour skyline.

Red Kite – Lytchett Fields – Mick Brooks

Another stunning day, but a tad cooler compared to the previous few days. It’s easy to get excited about migration when the first new birds arrive and hope that every day should be delivering new migrants, however it is only March 21st, with spring passage not properly due to get underway for another few weeks yet, so it wasn’t surprising today that although the weather was great, there weren’t too many new arrivals. The only migrants logged today were 8 Little Ringed Plover around the Swineham area (4 Swineham floods and 4 Lower Piddle Valley floods). The Forsters’s Tern was again on Brownsea for most of the day, along with 3 Spoonbill. There were 2 Marsh Harrier in Middlebere and 3 over the Wareham Channel and these clear blue sky’s really see the White-tailed Eagles get active and move about alot, with adult female G466 being seen over several urban areas this afternoon including Nuffiield Industrial Estate and Upper Parkstone. Quite remarkable really!

Adult White-tailed Eagle G466 – Upper Parkstone – Mick Brooks

Dartford Warbler – Coombe Heath, RSPB Arne – Alison Copland

Dunnock – Coombe Heath, RSPB Arne – Alison Copland