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

Well, the last 24 hours have been pretty exciting, when late yesterday evening 2 un-identified Osprey appeared in Lytchett Bay, both of which were sporting blue darvic rings. Sadly distance and fading light meant we weren’t able to read the rings, but it looked like 1 male and 1 female. This morning, keen photographers were out early and Mark Wright soon caught up with the female as it headed out fishing in Lytchett Bay. The ring read 6C6, which we’ve managed to track down as a 2022 female from a private site up in Lancashire. Even more amazingly, this is the first sighting of her in the UK since she left on migration back in autumn 2022. Sadly, there was no opportunity to photograph or ID the mystery male, but theres a really good chance this could be a 2023 male of ours from the Carey nest. He disappeared around lunchtime and hasn’t been seen since, but we’re sure he’ll pop up again somewhere over the coming days? weeks? Hopefully giving away his identity.

We were also out this morning surveying the low tide in the Wareham Channel and had the pleasure of watching both adult White-tailed Eagles G466 and G463, seeing how they used the tide to wait for prey to arrive into the shallows, with female G466 casually lifting off a turf mound close to the tide line and dropping into the water, only from about 6 inches off the surface of the water, where she then proceeded to swim back to shore, using her wings, before wading ashore hauling out a massive Flounder. We were also fortunate to have both fly right past us on the boat as we headed towards Swineham. On Swinheam GP there were 6 Little Ringed Plover including 4 adults and 2 fresh juveniles which suggests at least 2 pairs bred in that area this summer.

There was positive news from Brownsea that it seems to have been a good season for terns with c170 Sandwich Tern chicks counted and 105 Common Tern chicks. Passage waders were present in small numbers with 25 Black-tailed Godwit new in, plus 17 Redshank, 1 Greenshank and a lone Dunlin joining the 5 Avocet and 4 Spoonbill. The only other news was of 2 Spotted Redshank on Lytchett Fields.

Female Osprey ‘6C6’ – Lytchett Bay – Mark Wright

Male White-tailed Eagle G463 flying past the boat this AM

A cloudy and humid start to the day, with the sun appearing later on in the afternoon. It was a real raptor fest up at our Osprey viewing platform during our Carey Osprey Tours today, keeping female CJ7 and male 022 on their toes. A wandering 2nd calendar year White-tailed Eagle was present during our mid-morning session and was very quickly chased off by both the adult Ospreys, and 3 Buzzard were seen distantly soaring on the thermals. In the afternoon session, we saw a real spectacle. CJ7 seemed to be unsettled and headed away from the nest in pursuit of something, before settling back on the nest. 1 Hobby then appeared hawking on insects above the nest and was then joined by 1 Honey Buzzard, which CJ7 then went in pursuit of, successfully seeing it off. There was also 1 distant Peregrine Falcon seen. The Woodlark was singing throughout the day in the nearby field. Wader numbers were still high at RSPB Lytchett Fields this morning with 1 Spotted Redshank, 10 Green Sandpiper, 14 Redshank, 11 Lapwing, 1 Little Ringed Plover, 1 Oystercatcher, and 1 Greenshank. On Brownsea Lagoon this morning, there were 4 Spoonbill and 4 Avocet, which were also present during our Sunset Safari cruise this evening, along with the first migrant Common Sandpiper of the autumn and an adult Yellow-legged Gull. In the Wareham Channel this evening the adult male Marsh Harrier was active as was the recently fledged juvenile and male White-tailed Eagle G463 was out on Shag Looe Bar. On the low-tide in the Wareham Channel this evening there were limited numbers of early passage waders including 11 Curlew and 2 Black-tailed Godwit. It was also a pleasure to see the first Common and Sandwich Tern chicks fledging, taking their first daring flights as they looped around the lagoon.

Juvenile Sandwich Terns with adults – Brownsea Lagoon – From our Sunset Safari Cruise