In Lytchett Bay this morning there were 15 Greenshank, 52 Redshank, 21 Lapwing, 7 Black-tailed Godwit, 6 Green Sandpiper, 5 Common Sandpiper, 1 Spotted Redshank and 1 Whimbrel. Numbers of Teal are continuing to increase in the harbour with 10 on the Brownsea Lagoon. along with 11 Spoonbill, 1 Avocet, 1 Little Ringed Plover, 1 Ringed Plover, 149 Black-tailed Godwit, 4 Greenshank, 170 Redshank, 3 Common Sandpiper and 130 Dunlin.

A successful first bird ringing demo of the early autumn at Careys Secret Garden today with 2 Kingfisher, 2 Grasshopper Warbler, 1 Whitethroat and 1 Tree Pipit along with the usual common migrants. 1 Osprey and 1 Hobby also flew overhead. We have another Bird Ringing Demo coming up this Saturday with a few places still left: Find out more here.

Some excellent news that could be announced today. with the first Dorset Puffin fledgling seen for over 30 years! 1 of the pairs at Dancing Ledge was successful and has raised one chick and although monitoring is difficult it is thought there has not been successful fledging for 10 years with intensive monitoring taking place in the last 4 years. Excellent work by the volunteers including Dr Richard Caldow and all the National Trust team for putting in all the effort and time to conduct this monitoring. A glimmer of hope for the last remaining Puffin colony on the south coast.

Kingfisher – Birds of Poole Harbour Bird Ringing Demo – Joe Parker

Puffling – Dancing Ledge – Mark Singleton

Come on 6T9, you can fledge! Very active at the Carey Osprey nest today, with all three fledged chicks gaining their confidence when it comes to flying. 6T9 was helicoptering high up off the nest, any moment now…

Other sightings today included 6 Little Ringed Plover on Stilt Pool, Swineham as well as 1 Great White Egret, and 1 Yellow Wagtail with the Cattle. Swifts seem to be having a good year, with over 35 recorded today over Crest Road, Poole and 67 over Swanage, with non-breeding birds already gathering to leave on migration back to sub-Saharan Africa. Another 26 Grasshopper Warbler were ringed in the Lower Piddle Valley.

6T7 flying during today’s Carey Osprey Tours – Martin Wright

There was Osprey mania around the harbour today with our local pair having fledged three of their four young, but out of nowhere 3 intruder Ospreys appeared at the nest site. We weren’t sure who they all were until later on when they settled on a different nest platform elsewhere in the harbour and we were able to read the ring numbers 6J8, 5R0 (both of which we know of) plus another that read 5R1. This was an amazing piece of news as 5R1 is another of our 2024 males who we didn’t even know was back, meaning we now have 4 males back in the harbour area who are all potential new breeders for the harbour area next spring. There was also an un-ringed adult female Osprey who visited the harbour nest platform at Carey. Ringing in the Lower Piddle Valley produced 35 Grasshopper Warbler, 3 Garden Warbler, 68 Sedge Warbler, 28 Reed Warbler and the first Tree Pipit of the autumn. Lytchett was good for waders again and logged 13 Greenshank and 5 Common Sandpiper, plus 2 Crossbill passed over and there plenty of Sedge Warbler in the reeds around the fields. An adult White-tailed Eagle stole a fish from an Osprey in Middlebere, a Goshawk was over Slepe Heath and 2 Marsh Harrier were seen over Wareham Town Centre.

Male Osprey 5R1 back for the first time

Although things felt superficially the same today in terms of weather, there seemed to be a rise in activity when it came to migrating birds and returning birds. The main highlights included the return of Scottish female Osprey 6J8 who was only seen in Wales yesterday. She came back this afternoon. and spent a bit of time fishing in the Wareham Channel before heading straight back to the nest platform she favoured a few weeks ago, and was immediately joined by our 2-year old male Osprey 5R0. They immediately started ‘re-bonding’ with 5R0 even bringing a few sticks to the nest. This is exactly the time we want to see new pairs on nest platforms, as it tends to be later in the summer when younger Osprey start ‘planning’ for next year, and the fact 6J8 has come back at this time of the summer strongly suggests there’s a good chance we could be witnessing our third Osprey pair establishing. It was also excellent to see our local breeding female Osprey CJ7 fishing in the harbour for the first time since her arrival on March 25th. There also some excellent news in that it’s been confirmed that two pairs of Marsh Harrier have bred in the harbour area this year at undisclosed locations, fledging a total of 4 young. This is excellent news and highlights the richness and health of local habitats across the area currently. More new arrivals included 9 passage Yellow Wagtails on the Stilt Pools at Swineham with 14 Cattle Egret spread across the meadows there plus a random Barnacle Goose. There were also 3 Great White Egret on RSPB Arne Moors and 2-3 Yellow-legged Gulls. The Brownsea Lagoon held 5 Spoonbill, 4 Greenshank, 2 Common Sandpiper and 2 Avocet. Finally, the Lower Piddle Valley ringing station had a great morning and ringed an incredible 53 Grasshopper Warbler. At Lytchett Fields decent numbers of waders continued to arrive with 15 Greenshank, 5 Green Sandpiper and 4 Common Sandpiper.

Yellow Wagtail – Swineham – Garry Hayman

Cattle Egret – Swineham – Garry Hayman

Female Osprey 6J8 arriving back into the harbour yesterday afternoon – Harry McBride

Male Osprey 5R0 aquatinting himself with female 6J8 yesterday evening

At the time of writing there was no second fledge from the Poole Osprey nest today, but yesterdays fledgling ‘6T6’ was very active doing several decent fly arounds, settling on the camera perch after each short exploration. We’ve also been keeping eye on the bird news channels as there was a Caspian Tern in east Devon last week which we hoped may venture this way. Well today it did, but not quite as far as Poole Harbour, rather Abbotsbury Swannery, but that could bode well for a Brownsea Lagoon stop off over the next couple of days, so if you’re visiting, then make sure you scan through all the terns out on the various sand bars of the lagoon. The wind also eased enough this morning for a short ringing session to take place at the Lower Piddle Valley ringing station with an amazing 13 Grasshopper Warblers ringed, plus the first passage juvenile Willow Warblers with 3 ringed, also 14 Sedge Warbler including a French ringed individual, 16 Reed Warbler and a Garden Warbler. At Scotland Farm, Hartland there was a single Cuckoo, 4 Crossbill over and 3 Woodlark.

Juvenile Willow Warbler – Lower Piddle Valley – Ed Betteridge

Adult French ringed Sedge Warbler – Lower Piddle Valley – Ed Betteridge

Not much change in the weather but a newly arrived Common Quail was heard on Wareham Common this morning, which fits with the current large arrival thats going on in the UK currently. Sadly it didn’t sing for too long and wasn’t heard again for the rest of the day, but there’s a good chance it, or another will be heard in the same (or similar) areas in the coming weeks. There was some good Osprey news in as much that we saw our first 2026 chick fledge today, at 16:01, chick 6T6 took to the air and did several circuits of the area before landing on the camera perch for several hours. At the time of ringing we thought that perhaps 6T6 was a female, but based on the fledge date and the size and structure, it’s looking more likely to be male. Over the next week the other three will also make their first flights, but won’t venture far and will stay close to the nest until late July/early August. Away from the nest site, there were other Osprey shenanigans going on with 3 bombing around Middlebere this afternoon, one of which was local male 022, acting hyper territorial (like he does), and a new un-ringed female was seen to land on one of our harbour nest platforms, with a ‘mystery male’ in tow, although we’re unsure who that was. Elsewhere male White-tailed Eagle G463 was in the Wareham Channel this morning, the Wareham Channel Marsh Harrier juv’s were active, flying around near Swineham anda freashly fledged juvenile Red Kite passed over central harbour….who knows where this had come from? The Brownsea Lagoon held 200+  Common Tern, c100+ Sandwich Tern, 7 Spoonbill, 2 Avocet and 1 Greenshank.

Osprey chick 6T6 landing on camera perch for the first time after fledging this afternoon

Male Osprey 022 warning off newly arrived un-ringed female and unidentified Osprey near Middlebere

Freshly fledged juvenile Red Kite high over central harbour from Summer Safari Cruise this AM