It was a cold June day today with a SW wind building which made fishing a tad tricky for male Osprey 022 who yesterday brought in multiple Grey Mullet and Bass to the nest, whereas today he only managed a poultry 2 fish between breakfast and dinner. It was great to witness him fishing in the Wareham Channel from our Summer Safari Cruise this AM, where we were also lucky enough to see both White-tailed Eagles, male G463 high over Wareham, and female G466 getting chased by gulls on the Wareham Channel  shoreline. There was also a Great White Egret over Keysworth, a 1st summer Little Gull on the Brownsea Lagoon, c70 Black-tailed Godwit in the mouth of the Frome and decent numbers of Reed Bunting and Reed Warbler along the Frome. Bird of the day though, goes to a Hawfinch that was seen flying over Ballard down this morning which settled briefly before moving on.

White-tailed Eagle – Wareham Channel from Summer Safari this AM – Dave ward

Little Gull – Brownsea Lagoon – David Ward

More sunny weather in the harbour today with lots of the floodplains beginning to dry out now. 1 female Marsh Harrier was quartering over Wareham Common this afternoon. 1 Osprey was seen off Swineham Point, presumably 022, but there was some alarm calling this afternoon at the Osprey Nest, suggesting that another bird is still in the area and briefly intruding at the nest. At Lytchett Bay,  there was 1 very late Wheatear, 11 Ringed Plover and 4 Avocet on French’s Field as well as at least 1 male Nightjar on Lytchett Heath. Plenty of Sandwich Tern and Common Tern nests starting to hatch chicks on the Brownsea Lagoon as seen in the picture below. 1 Cuckoo was singing and several Nightjar were at Slepe Heath this evening.

Sandwich Tern with chicks – Brownsea Lagoon – Nicki T on X

Really nice records again on Brownsea Lagoon today with Little Gull, Little Tern and Roseate Tern all reported. It’s good to hear the there are up to 8 Sandwich Tern chicks now hatched on the tern islands on the lagoon, as well as 2 Knot, 23 Dunlin, 1 Sanderling, 26 Bar-tailed Godwit and 2 Avocet also counted. One of the White-tailed Eagles was present on Shag Looe spit in the Wareham Channel this morning. Interestingly, there was a Green Sandpiper on at Lytchett Fields this morning, as well as a female Marsh Harrier over the bay. We’re also very pleased to see the fourth and final egg hatch on the Osprey nest late last night, meaning that we now have the full cohort. You can watch the webcam here.

Four Osprey chicks on the nest

More rain meaning few sightings from today. 1 White-tailed Eagle was seen flying over Holes Bay heading north-east in the early afternoon and that’s all that was reported today!

In better news it looks like the final Osprey chick is about to hatch! The beak is poking through so it will likely be either this evening or overnight that it hatches, meaning we’ll have 4 chicks in the nest! The 3 chicks have been feeding well over the last few days and starting to battle it out for a position in the hierachy. You can watch the action unfold LIVE here:

Lovely sunny conditions for our final Spring Safari Cruise this morning with birds of prey galore including 1 White-tailed Eagle soaring over the Wareham Channel as well as incredibly close views of 2 Marsh Harrier and 1 Hobby hunting over Swineham. The geese/ducks of unknown origin at Swineham are still present with 1 Ruddy Shelduck and 1 Bar-headed Goose amongst the Canada, Greylag and Egyptian geese. On the Brownsea Lagoon there were 2 Avocet, c15 Dunin, c20 Bar-tailed Godwit, 3 Sanderling, 3 Turnstone and plenty of Common Tern and Sandwich Tern action including a huge mixed group of Terns/Gulls feeding on the edge of the lagoon, presumably on a gathering of small fry. An Osprey was seen with a fish over Hamworthy this morning.

Gadwall – Lytchett Fields – Pete Corbin on X

It’s been a bit of a murky day, with sightings few and far between. There were close views of a Gannet hunting near North Haven this morning. Also of interest was a drake Mandarin Duck present at Poole Park. A male Marsh Harrier was reported hunting over Lytchett Fields in the late afternoon.

Mandarin Duck – Poole Park – Paul Sutton

The third Osprey chick hatched this morning at 2:13am, and seems to be keeping up well with it’s older siblings! An adult bird was also seen over Lytchett Bay at 9:45am. At Swineham there were 182 Black-tailed Godwit, along with 2 Redshank and a Greenshank on the flooded fields.

Three Poole Harbour Osprey Chicks