A Day on Brownsea Island

13th June 2022

When you are holidaying next to Poole Harbour a boat trip to Brownsea Island must be top of the list and my first time with the camera. The first hide overlooks the Common Tern colony and most pairs had young so plenty of photo opportunities.

Then on to the second hide which overlooks the Sandwich Tern colony. Here the pairs were packed in quite tightly, many with young which spent most of their time begging for food.

As a result the adults spent a lot of their time away from the nest fishing and bringing back almost exclusively Sand Eels.

Just to be different this one has brought back a fish.

Now into the woods to try and find the elusive Red Squirrels of which Brownsea Island has a thriving population. In the autumn they are relatively easy to find as they feed on the beech mast, but at this time of year they are more spread out so more difficult to see, are very fast, and spend most of their time on the dark woodland floor.

However with a bit of perseverance I did manage to find one and manage a distant shot and then one of it running.

And then at last I managed to track one down feeding so was able to get much closer and get that traditional shot. Happy with that!!!

But now for that MEGA SURPRISE!!! When I was photographing the Sandwich Terns a small tern with distinctive red legs circled the colony a couple of times and was passed of as a Common Tern. It then landed on the fence in front of me so I took a couple of shots, after all it would be rude not to.

It was only when I looked at the photos I saw that it had a black bill and was in fact a Roseate Tern. How good is that???!!! And more importantly where was it ringed, certainly not Brownsea Island, probably Coquet Island.