More ‘flocks’ of Osprey today with 5 over Middlebere this AM and this evening up to 5 were moving in and out of Lytchett Bay, with singles out around teh Wareham Channel. A Pied Flycatcher was on Kingswood heath, just west of Purbeck golf course and on the Brownsea Lagoon there ar now 20 Spoonbill. At Swineham there were 37 Cattle Egret and 2 Great White Egret were in the Wareham Channel. The drake Common Scoter was still on the Saline Lagoon at RSPB Arne, a White-tailed Eagle flew over Middlebere and the Wood Sandpiper was still on the Sunnsyside Scrape.

Greenshank – Lytchett Fields – Mick Brooks

It’s so hard to tell how many Osprey there are in the harbour currently, they seemed to be just everywhere this morning with multiple birds in Lytchett Bay, the Wareham Channel and Middlebere all at the same time. Our best guess is between 8-12 but it could be more, and with more migrants due to arrive over the coming weeks that number will rise. This time of year is always our favourite though, as it’s when the local juveniles venture to the harbour, and this morning both 6T6 and 6T9 were seen in the harbour, and from our Summer Safari Cruise. Also from the cruises today there were 19 Spoonbill on the Brownsea Lagoon, 15 Turnstone, 1 Knot, 1 Barnacle Goose at Swineham with 2 Bearded Tit and 2 Marsh Harrier, the 2 White-tailed Eagles were also seen this morning over RSPB Arne. The roving flock of Cattle Egret were up the river Frome Valley with c20 counted, plus 2 Great White Egret in the Wareham Channel. Elsewhere the Wood Sandpiper was at Sunnyside, Ridge, a few Whinchat were out on the south harbour heathlands, a random Marsh Tit was ringed at the Lower Piddle Valley ringing station.

Wood Sandpiper – Sunnyside Farm, Ridge – Peter Moore

Juvenile Osprey 6T9 from this AM’s Summer Safari – Alison Copland

There’s no doubt that this early/mid part of August provides the best chance to see multiple Osprey around the harbour, with an incredible total of 7 seen together over Middlebere this morning around 11am. We’ve also been getting some great footage from our monitoring cameras on nest platforms elsewhere, highlighting that next spring is shaping up to be a fascinating evolution of the project with a couple of our 2-year old males (5H6 and 5R1) seen taking sticks to a couple of different nest platforms, along with an un-ringed adult female too. It’s anyones guess as to how next spring will pan out, but we’ll certainly have front row seats. This evening there were 18 Spoonbill on the Brownsea Lagoon, along with 4 Greenshank, 9 Avocet, 12 Turnstone c100 Black-tailed Godwit, c30 Redshank and 8 Ringed Plover. There was also a good smattering of common migrants across the southern harbour heathlands this morning including 3 Common Redstart, 30+ Willow Warbler, 20+ Common Whitethroat, 10+ Spotted Flycatcher, plus a Whinchat near Godlingston along with 2 Grasshopper Warbler, 1 Garden Warbler and and 3 Spotted Flycatcher. A White-tailed Eagle flew over Middlebere. At Lytchett Fields / Bay today there were 20 Greenshank, 7 Common Sandpiper, 6 Green Sandpiper, 3 Dunlin, 3 Ringed Plover, 17 Black-tailed Godwit & 12 Lapwing.

Female Osprey CJ7 on dead tree cam – edge of Wareham Channel

Another Osprey day with no less than 6 seen in the Wareham Channel this morning during a pop up watch at Ham Common viewpoint, plus a White-tailed Eagle was sat out on Shag Looe Bar. There was 1 (possibly 2) Wood Sandpiper at the Sunnyside Scrape, Ridge, yesterdays Common Scoter was on the clay Pit at RSPB Arne and was visible from their new ‘Clay Pit’ walk and a migrant Wheatear was on Redhorn Quay and 3 Common Sandpiper were on Jerrys Point.

Osprey over RSPB Arne – Alison Copland

A cracking Summer Safari Cruise for us this morning, with the top highlight being an adult male Common Scoter in the Wareham Channel seen sat on the water before flying south. We also saw 5 Osprey throughout the trip, including 1 successfully catching a fish in Arne Bay 5 mins after leaving the quay and another catching a fish in the Wareham Channel. 1 adult White-tailed Eagle was also present in the channel flying along the Arne shoreline whilst getting mobbed by Herring Gulls and an Osprey. On the low tide, c560 Black-tailed Godwit were spooked by 1 juvenile Peregrine, and 2 distant Marsh Harrier flew over the Arne shoreline. The juv Peregrine was terrorising everything in sight, from Cormorants to Black-headed Gulls, unsuccessfully! On the Brownsea Lagoon were c100 Dunlin, c1o Common Ringed Plover, 6 Greenshank, c120 Redshank, 6 Avocet, 18 Spoonbill, and 1 Common Sandpiper flying along the lagoon wall. Other sightings today featured 1 Honey Buzzard flying over Carey heading north, and 1 Wood Sandpiper and 1 Green Sandpiper on Sunnyside Scrape. This afternoon, 2 Osprey were present in Lytchett Bay, including 1 successfully catching a fish.

Ad Male Common Scoter – @wildlifedan1.bsky.social – Wareham Channel

After news the first (five) Aquatic Warblers trapped and ringed in France yesterday, it was hard not to feel a hint of unbridled optimism at the smallest sniff of the overnight easterlies. The reality was a relatively quiet ringing session at Carey, but species diversity made for a cracking migrant ringing demo for our Young Birders group showcasing Grasshopper Warbler, Tree Pipit and Willow Warbler, plus 4 Carey Ospreys overhead! Elsewhere, a single Osprey and Spotted Redshank at Lytchett Bay and a Pied Flycatcher was found at Arne, located near the Middlebere Lookout.

Unringed migrant Female Osprey (yesterday), Lytchett Bay © Mark Wright

At Swineham this morning there was 1 Great White Egret and a few Yellow Wagtail. 4 Osprey were hunting in Lytchett Bay this afternoon. Wader numbers are continuing to rise in the harbour with 3 Ringed Plover, 58 Curlew, 4 Whimbrel, 154 Black-tailed Godwit, 1 Greenshank and 111 Mediterranean Gull in Brands Bay. 1 male Goshawk was at Holton Heath.

With the amount of Osprey and Eagle action building in the harbour, as we enter Osprey migration period, our free pop-up watches begin again at Ham Common and Rock Lea View, Lytchett Bay this coming week. Our first one is Tuesday 4th August 9am-12pm at Rock Lea View and you can find more information, all the dates and book free tickets at the link here. Hopefully we’ll have similar encounters as in recent days with at least 4 active hunting Ospreys, juveniles starting to explore the harbour and kleptoparasitism by White-tailed Eagles!

Peregrine Falcon ‘MS’ (juvenile Poole female 2026) – practice hunting BH Gulls last weekend over Brownsea from Summer Safari – Scott Newman

Peregrine Falcon ‘MS’ – ringed by the Dorset Raptor Study Group this summer – now exploring the harbour – Scott Newman

The first day of August brought with it another instance of kleptoparasitism of a White-tailed Eagle on an Osprey – this time in Lytchett Bay, where 3 Ospreys were fishing and male Eagle G463 forced one to drop its fish. It went into the water to try to claim it but failed and had to use its wings to swim back to shore. It later flew off, being mobbed by an unringed female Osprey. A juvenile male Redstart was ringed in Lytchett may along with a handful of Garden Warbler and Grasshopper Warbler. Huge numbers of Willow Warbler are passing through at the moment with yellow juveniles seemingly spread around all habitats in the harbour in good numbers.

We had the first sighting of one of the young Ospreys in the harbour today with 6T6 practising hunting in the Wareham Channel from our Summer Safari Cruise. Both adult White-tailed Eagles were active in the Wareham Channel being mobbed by Hobby and Osprey.

Osprey 6T6 from the Carey Nest – Wareham Channel – Alison Copland

White-tailed Eagle G466 being mobbed by Hobby – Wareham Channel – Alison Copland

Distant Osprey mobbing White-tailed Eagle having attempted fish theft – Lytchett Bay – Sam Levy