It was really autumnal across the harbour today with a real sense of coming and going. We’re currently in that amazing transition period of birds moving through in all directions, pit-stopping off in the harbour before then moving on again, or, as we experienced this AM, birds making landfall for the winter having probably commuted several hundred miles. The harbour today was quite literally a sheer delight. Highlights included 3-4 Osprey with most sightings around the Lytchett Bay/Holton shoreline with one at Middlebere, one was fishing in the Wareham Channel and one in Brands Bay. At the top end of the Wareham Channel a Ruff was feeding on the mud with 800+ Black-tailed Godwit. In the Lower Frome Valley there was another Ruff and a Wood Sandpiper on pools at Arne Moors (viewed from a boat) and on the Swineham scrapes there were 4 Wigeon and 1 Shoveler. Swineham GP was busy with 1 Pochard, 1 Tufted Duck, 90+ Coot, 5 Wigeon, 10+ Gadwall plus good numbers of Sand Martin, Swallow and House Martin with a single Swift. A small party of Bearded Tit were in the reed beds off Swineham Point and 2 Marsh Harrier were in that area. There were still both a handful of Sandwich and Common Tern feeding and a group of 38 Turnstone were on Hamworthy beach. On the Brownsea Lagoon there were 24 Spoonbill, 4 Curlew Sandpiper, 8+ Greenshank, 50+ Ringed Plover, 250+ Dunlin, 20+ Knot, 6 Sanderling, 31 Avocet, 7 Wigeon, 12 Shoveler and 50+ Redshank. In Holes Bay NE Wigeon numbers increased to 73 and there were 2 Common Sandpiper there too. It was also fantastic to witness Wigeon arriving in from the north as a party of 8 came from high above the Frome Valley before settling towards Middlebere. There were a scattering of Wheatear with 4 at Arne and 4 on the Brownsea sea wall. Chiffchaff numbers are really building and are beginning to take over Willow Warbler totals. This evening a new Osprey was seen on the webcam, just before 18:00, this time a juvenile from Scotland. We know this as it had a blue ring on the left leg but frustratingly we couldn’t quite read it. Hopefully it will come back again tomorrow. Other late news included 2 Redstart and 30+ Yellow Wagtail on top of Hartland early this evening and 5 Marsh Harrier out of the west harbour roost this morning.

Spoonbills – Brownsea Lagoon

Redstart – Hartland Moor

Newly arrived juvenile Scottish Osprey – On nest cam

It was a bit quieter today with sightings reported to us, but once again there was no shortage of Osprey seen carry monster sized Mullet over Lytchett Bay and Middlebere, with roughly 3-4 seen today, but the early morning murk didn’t help things too much. A sea watch from Branksome produced a single Arctic Skua and several Gannet. In Holes Bay north there were an impressive 760+ Black-tailed Godwit with 2 Bar-tailed Godwit and an increase of Wigeon to 38 and 2 returning Shoveler. The first Wigeon for Lytchett Bay appeared today too with 10 counted also 2 Ruff on Lytchett fields, 3 Bar-tailed Godwit, 1 Spotted Redshank, 4 Knot and 13 Dunlin.

Osprey – Lytchett Bay – Alison Copland

We’re back. Sorry for the technical glitch over the last couple of days, but you were all out birding anyway, so doubt you even noticed 😉

Back to work (and school) for some today, and with that Bank Holiday over we can now gear our selves up for what the rest of the autumn has in store for us. In August, member of our team set themselves an August target of seeing how many species they could see in that single month. Mark managed a great total of 139, with Paul achieving 131, but looking        at the list of other species logged during August it could have been possible (with a lot of hard work) to see 152 different species! With that in mind, to spice up your birding for September, why not set your self a September challenge? Nothing too series but see if you can break the 100 mark over the next 30 days. Its great fun and certainly gets you out.

Today started off as it has done pretty much every other day over the last couple of weeks with 2-3 Osprey in Lytchett Bay (yawn….boring) and then several more sightings around the Middlebere/Wareham Channel area. We were amazed to see today that one of the juveniles is still being fed on a Scottish nest cam by the adult male, which means there could potentially be still plenty more to come yet! Wigeon numbers continue to build with birds now appearing in Holes Bay NE with 9 present, plus 14 in NW sector and 4-6 Spotted Flycatcher near the Stone Bench at Upton CP. It seems Avocet numbers are also building slowly with 21 in Middlebere this afternoon. A few different Marsh Harrier are kicking about with a gorgeous fresh juvenile in the Middlebere area and 2 Hobby over Slepe Heath. At Lytchett Fields there were 2 Ruff, 1 Spotted Redshank, 2 Knot, 39 Redshank, 4 Greenshank and 2 Ringed Plover        

Newly arrived Wigeon – Holes Bay – Rene Goad

We’re not quite sure where to start this evening, with the harbour quite literally brimming with good birds and totals from every corner of the harbour. We apologise in advance if we miss anyone’s sightings they’ve reported to us, but we’ll try and include everything from today. Starting off with Ospreys (well why not), it seemed that the northerly wind didn’t see too many leave but instead perhaps increased totals with 3-4 present in the Wareham Channel on and off for most of the day, along with another 3 or so in Lytchett Bay and numerous sightings of 3-4 birds from Middlebere too. It could easily be estimated that there were between 7-10 Osprey in the harbour today. Quite amazing. At Swineham there was a single Cattle Egret in the cattle field and on Arne Moors (viewed from Swineham) 3 Ruff were feeding. On Swineham GP and roost of c200 Sand Martin were feeding before soon moving off and 2-3 Marsh Harrier were present near the mouth of the Frome and in Lytchett Bay. Lytchett Fields also saw 3 Ruff, along with 2 Whinchat, 3 Wheatear, a few Dunlin and Ringed Plover, 4 Green Sandpiper, 2 Hobby, 2 Marsh Harrier and a Peregrine. On the Brownsea Lagoon there were 2 juvenile Little Stint and 2 juv Curlew Sandpiper along with 19 Knot, 20 Sanderling, 95 Redshank, 2 Spotted Redshank, 6 Greenshank, 35 Ringed Plover, 21 Avocet, 285 Dunlin, 17 Spoonbill and 1 Peregrine. In Brands Bay the first 2 Great White Egret of the autumn were present, along with 10 Wigeon, 1 Spotted Redshank, 5 Whimbrel, 19 Great Crested Grebe and 31 Med Gulls. In Holes Bay there were 676 Black-tailed Godwit and 100+ Redshank. Passerines finally gave themselves up after a cold start with a good spread of Wheatears, Whinchats, Redstarts, Spotted Flycatchers, Common Whitethroat, Yellow Wagtails and Willow Warbler right across the harbour especially the Hartland, Slepe Heath, Middlebere, Arne and Greenland’s Farm area. There were 9 Pintail in the mouth of Middlebere this afternoon highlighting the fact that winter is almost here. This is obviously just a snippet of what can be seen in the harbour currently. Add all this to the other species you can experience whilst ambling about out around the harbour and there’s no better place to be on a bank holiday Monday….so we can’t wait to hear about what turns up tomorrow!!!

Pintail arrival – Middlebere 

Wheatear – Hartland Moor

It’s really beginning to feel autumnal now, with a brisk northerly wind settling in over night and a cold crisp morning making it now necessary to wear a jacket when first leaving the house. We love this time of year, with so much promise available on each trip out somewhere. Starting in order of birds being reported to us. Things kicked off with an Osprey fishing is Lytchett Bay, soon followed by another. The Whinchat was still in the approach fields at Lytchett Fields and there were 3 new Ruff on Lytchett Fields along with 1 Spotted Redshank, 3 Knot, 4 Dunlin, 5 Greenshank, 1 Peregrine, 1 Hobby and 1 Marsh Harrier. In Creekmoor 2 Raven flew over. On the Brownsea Lagoon highlights included 15 Spoonbill, 2 Curlew Sandpiper, 11 Knot and the 1^st returning Grey Plover of the winter. In Middlebere 3 different Osprey were on view together at one point and 2 Marsh Harrier were logged with 1 Green Sandpiper, 4 Greenshank and c10 Yellow Wagtail in the cattle fields approaching the cottages. At Holme Lane GP there were 19 Egyptian Geese and 7 Little Grebe. There was a nice group of 25 Turnstone on Baiter Beach with a few Sandwich Tern there too. Holes Bay north saw 500+ Black-tailed Godwit, 150+ Redshank, 13 Curlew and 2 Spotted Flycatcher near the Stone Bench. On Stoborough Heath 3 Wheatear and 5 Yellow Wagtail were around the cattle along Soldiers Road and a Hobby was hunting above the road. At Greenlands Farm there was another Osprey along with 14 Yellow Wagtail, 13 Wheatear, 1 Whinchat, 1 Spotted Flycatcher and 2 Whitethroat. Just below Wareham Walls 9 Yellow Wagtail were with cattle on the floodplain along with 20+ Sand Martin. It’s also Stonechat galore around the harbour currently with every gorse bush seeming to be hopping with these perky chats! They’ve obviously had an incredible breeding season, with the numbers present almost suggesting some sort of record-breaking year in the harbour! Finally, we conducted a co-ordinated Osprey count on Wednesday morning last week (Aug 26^th), and the results have highlighted that with taking things like timings, locations, sexes etc of differnet birds it was worked out that we had a minimum of 8 in harbour that day, possibly u to 11 or 12!!!!!

Spotted Flycatcher – Hartland Stud – David Foster

More sunshine and showers, but the showers seemed more productive this afternoon, seeming to down quite a few migrants in certain areas of the harbour On top of Hartland there was a great mix of species with 2 Redstart, 3 Whinchat, 9 Wheatear, 7 Willow Warbler, 30+ Yellow Wagtail and 1 Spotted Flycatcher between Scotland Farm and Hartland Stud. At Lytchett Fields it was another Osprey day again with 1-2 seen on and off in the morning along with sightings of Hobby, 1 Marsh Harrier, 1 Whinchat. At Swineham an Osprey was off Swineham Point in the Wareham Channel, there were 12 Yellow Wagtail behind Curlew Cottage with a few Willow Warbler and 4 Fulvous Whistling Duck seem to have taken up residence on Swineham GP. Baiter saw a nice total of 20 Ringed Plover, 25+ Turnstone and 15+ Oystercatcher. In Brands Bay there were 140 Black-tailed Godwit, 56 Curlew, 11 Redshank, 25 Oystercatcher, 11 Ringed Plover, 40 Dunlin, 9 Turnstone and 1 Kingfisher. At Arne, Osprey were active in Middlebere on and off all day with individuals seen in the dead trees and with on feeding on the T-perch again. Also in Middlebere was a Marsh Harrier, c100 Black-tailed Godwit, 4 Greenshank and 2 Spotted Redshank.

Whinchat – Lytchett Fields – David Foster