A hot and humid day today in the harbour with a high of 29°C and little breeze. Brownsea Lagoon has been quiet with 7 Spoonbill, a Curlew and some returning Redshank have been recorded. A lot of the Common Terns are now resting over on Boomerang Island. At Lytchett Fields from Sherford viewpoint the 1st Wood Sandpiper of the autumn arrived, also there was 1 Green Sandpiper, 4 Common Sandpiper, 6 Greenshank and a Marsh Harrier were logged.

Our second to last Nightjar walk was an absolute belter with a minimum of 6 seen and multiple birds heard singing. With Nightjar ducking, diving and hovering around us, it was a truly magical experiance on a balmy summers evening. 

With a mini heat wave due to kick in tomorrow with a steady easterly breeze its now we can begin thinking about the first Wood Sandpipers and Ruff beginning to arrive into the harbour. Sites like Lytchett Fields, Sunnyside Scrape, Holton Pools and of course the Brownsea Lagoon will all begin seeing an increase in wader numbers over the following weeks and with a trickle of North American goodies already filtering into the UK over the 7 days, be on the look out for ‘something a bit different’.

On the Brownsea Lagoon there were 7 Spoonbill, 3 Avocet, 71 Dunlin, 46 Redshank and 1 Peregrine. At Lytchett Fields there were 2 Little Ringed Plover, 2 Common Sandpiper, 4 Green Sandpiper and 40+ Redshank with 2 Whimbrel out in Lytchett Bay. Osprey were seen over Coombe Heath and Holton Lee. At the PC World drain 7 Blackcap and 1 juv Willow Warbler were in the scrub, and despite a late return to the party, it looks as if Swifts have had a good end to the summer with decent numbers now screaming over Old Town Poole, upper Poole (hospital area), Wareham and Corfe.

Willow Warbler (juv) – Lytchett Fields – Ian Ballam

Spoonbill – Middlebere – Simon Kidner

The Spoonbill have reunited on Brownsea Lagoon with 7 sited. 134 Common Tern and c30 Sandwich Terns were recorded indicating that some may have moved on from the Lagoon or perhaps feeding out in the deeper waters of the Harbour. High numbers of Oystercatcher have been recorded today with 153 in the Lagoon along with 2 Avocet, 6 Little Egret and 6 Dunlin.

Over at Middlebere 6 Curlew, c50 Black-tailed Godwit, 2 Redshank and 2 Whimbrel were spotted. Lytchett Fields recorded a Little Ringed Plover and a Common Sandpiper. Over at Studland a male Common Scoter has been reported in addition to 2 Whimbrel, a Greenshank, a Black-tailed Godwit and a Dunlin.

Seen at Poole Park was the usual wildfowl including the Greylag flock, 18 moulting Mute Swans, c70 Mallard Ducks and a Tufted Duck with her 3 ducklings.The Spoonbill have reunited on Brownsea Lagoon with 7 sited. 134 Common Tern and c30 Sandwich Terns were recorded indicating that some may have moved on from the Lagoon or perhaps feeding out in the deeper waters of the Harbour. High numbers of Oystercatcher have been recorded today with 153 in the Lagoon along with 2 Avocet, 6 Little Egret and 6 Dunlin.

Over at Middlebere 6 Curlew, c50 Black-tailed Godwit, 2 Redshank and 2 Whimbrel were spotted. Lytchett Fields recorded a Little Ringed Plover and a Common Sandpiper. Over at Studland a male Common Scoter has been reported in addition to 2 Whimbrel, a Greenshank, a Black-tailed Godwit and a Dunlin.

Tufted Duck – Poole Park

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The weather soon cleared up this morning leaving us with a few clouds, 17mph SW winds and a high of 23°C. Many of the Greylag Geese in Poole Park have moved on with only c70 seen this morning, however 10 have been seen at Swineham, which is interesting to hear, helping us to get a better understanding of where they head on their travels.  The beautiful song of a male singing male Blackcap was also heard at Poole Park.

Over at Lytchett Bay 3 Willow Warbler were reported and over on the Fields a Yellow-legged Gull, 5 Whimbrel, 3 Greenshank, 2 Dunlin, 3 Little Ringed Plover and 2 Spotted Redshank were seen. An Osprey, LS7, was also seen over Lytchett Bay heading off over Lytchett Fields whilst another Osprey was also spotted fishing over Middlebere and heading over to Wytch Channel. Also reported at Middlebere was a staggering c400 Black-tailed Godwit and it looks as though 5 of the 7 Spoonbill, normally resident at Brownsea Lagoon, have flown over to join c5 Redshank and a female Peregrine. At Sunnyside Farm, 2 Little Ringed Plover were on the scrape with 5 Green Sandpiper.

A wet and windy day in the harbour today with strong South-Westerlies, so sightings are few! The Brownsea webcameras are playing up in this weather but from what we can see there are 60+ Oystercatcher, 1 Curlew, 15+ Great Black-backed Gulls with juveniles, 1 Moorhen with a juvenile, 30+ Cormorant, the late c10 Common Terns pairs are still nesting on the far island from Mac hide (right hand side as looking out) that was previously used by the Sandwich Terns and Black-headed Gulls. 

6 Mediterranean Gull were on Littlesea.

Redshank numbers are up in Holes Bay as well as other waders. Usual Godwits, Curlew, 5 Little Egret and 6 Spoonbill on Brownsea Lagoon. 2 Little Ringed Plover at Sunnyside Farm Scrape. Marsh Tit juv seen on private residence in around Lytchett Bay and bthere was as Marsh Harrier and single Osprey seen over Middlebere 10AM. At Middlebere there were 4 Greenshank and 2 Whimbrel plus 2 Osprey from Hydes heath, Arne.

With a high of 23C and SSE winds we have had some interesting report of juvenile Yellow Wagtail on Shell Bay Beach as well as young Redstart. Common Scoter drake seen again in Bramble Bush Bay that was seen back on the 7^th July in Brands Bay. Holton Lee webcam captured a Dunnock, whilst over at Lytchett Fields 12 species of wader were recorded including 2 Spotted Redshank, 5 Greenshank and 5 Little Ringed Plover. Plus 2 Little Ringed Plover at Sunnyside Scrape. Brownsea Lagoon webcams have seen 6 Spoonbill who have spent the majority of their day preening on one of the islands. 8 Avocet, 16 Dunlin, 1 Curlew, 2 Bar-tailed Godwit and c65 Oystercatcher were also seen.

It’s been a busy day at Lytchett fields today 20 Green Sandpiper, 7 Greenshank, 2 Spotted Redshank, 2 Common Sandpiper, 3 Little Ringed Plover, 1 Curlew, 1 Oystercatcher and 2 Mediterranean Gulls. A juvenile Peregrine was also stirring up the waders gliding over-head.

The Tern Islands over on Brownsea Island are looking bare, with the majority of Sandwich Tern chicks having fledged. There seems to be several Common Tern sitting on nests again so could this be a second brood/failed first breeders or perhaps they are just late on in the breeding season.

Things are bubbling up nicely with more waders arriving and a few more migrant passerines beginning to pass through. Today at Lytchett Fields there were 9 Greenshank, 5 Little Ringed Plover, 1 Spotted Redshank, 4 Green Sandpiper, 1 Common Sandpiper, c40 Black-tailed Godwit, 11 Redshank, 57 Lapwing, 1 Curlew and the first juv Med Gull of the season. At Sunnyside Farm 2-3 Green Sandpiper were on the scrape and in the Frome Valley an Osprey headed down towards the Wareham Channel where CJ7 and LS7 were also seen later in the day. Its young birds galore at the moment with final broods of many species all fledging currently including good numbers of Dartford Warbler and there are numerous Mistle Thrush flocks moving around the Arne peninsular. At Holton Lee it’s been confirmed there are 2 Little Owls again, begging the question has a new adult moved in or is there a juvenile present, having one sadly dies a few weeks ago. On the Brownsea Lagoon there were 6 Spoonbill, 4 Avocet, 2 Greenshank and a couple of really young Common Tern chicks.

An overcast and muggy day with a high of 22°C. 6 Spoonbill have been reported from Brownsea Lagoon today along with 3 Bar-tailed Godwit, 1 Black-tailed Godwit, 8 Dunlin, 1 Curlew, 2 Redshank, 1 Mediterranean Gull and 7 Shoveler. Most of the Tern chicks have now fledged.

Poole Park has reported 180 Greylag Geese, 4 Tufted Duck, a Black-tailed Godwit, 2 Blackcap, 2 juvenile and 2 adult Blackcap and a Great-spotted Woodpecker