Migration starts at the end of July with a few Green Sandpiper and the odd Spotted Redshank moving back through, but August things start to increase a little more. Our month has been a little less intensive wildlife wise as we have been spending time with the grandchildren whilst they have been on holiday. We also been out on a couple more boat trips in the harbour which have given us good views of various Osprey, Hobby, Marsh Harrier, Buzzard, Sparrowhawk and of course White-tailed Eagle which is still hanging around.
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| White-tailed Eagle G801 Poole Harbour © Nick Hull |
Only 76 species seen this month though we did have some quality, a bird boat trip up the Wareham Channel on the 4th August produced several Osprey and view of the White-tailed Eagle. This was followed by an early phone call on the 12th Aug from Shaun to say they had caught an Aquatic Warbler at Lytchett Heath. So we forgot about breakfast grabbed the camera and headed off to the heath and had closeup in hand views of a juvenile Aquatic Warbler our third for the patch. We also saw a few Sedge Warbler too which was good to see the comparison between the two species.
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| Aquatic Warbler compared to Sedge Warbler Lytchett Heath © Nick Hull |
Though Jackie and I have been part of the team looking after Poole Harbour's breeding pair of Osprey it wasn't until we had a late afternoon walk to the Lytchett view point on the 21st Aug that we managed to get one on our patch year list.
A walk at Bestwell on the 23rd was fairly quite but we did find a family party of Spotted Flycatcher which performed very well. On the 25th Aug we had 3 Spotted Flycatcher in the Oaks on Lytchett Fields and a late Common Swift and a Yellow Wagtail flying over French's SANG when we went for the Little Stint on Frenches Pools, plus added Green and Common Sandpiper to our patch lists as well.
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| Spotted Flycatcher - Lytchett Fields RSPB © Nick Hull |
On the 27th whilst checking through my moth trap a Common Crossbill flew over calling and next day when travelling to a family lunch at Bowerchalk we saw Red Kite near Cranborne and another at Wyke Down where we added Whinchat to our county list plus Wheatear.
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| Whinchat Wyke Down © Nick Hull |
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| Adonis Blue (male) Martin Down © Nick Hull |
On the 30th Aug we helped out as spotters on a Birds of Poole Harbour Birdboat with views of four Osprey and the White-tailed Eagle again plus Hobby.
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| Osprey Poole Harbour © Nick Hull |
On the moth front I've added three macro moth Hedge and Six-striped Rustic and a Wormwood Pug and only my second Nutmeg. Though I've caught Sic-striped Rustic before I've not had it for the garden and the Hedge Rustic is a rather nice record I have only seen two before one at Arne and one at Upton Heath DWT.
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| Hedge Rustic & Six-striped Rustic © Nick Hull |
We also added two bee species to the garden list Bloomed Furrow Bee Lasioglossoum albipes and and White-zoned Furrow Bee L. zonaria and ended the month with a new beetle species Chrysolina americana Rosemary Beetle though I found it on our lavender but apparently they also like sage and other similar herbs. The photograph doesn't do it justice as in the sunlight it looks like a metallic jewel and as a none native species is there are monitored as they could become a pest but as we have a wildlife garden I don't think it will be a problem here.
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| Rosemary Beetle Home garden © Nick Hull |
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