Although things were cooling down today in terms of temperature, things were (potentially) hotting up on the Poole Harbour Osprey scene when around 2pm two Ospreys landed briefly on a harbour nest platform. We were able to read one ring number easily enough which was recently returned male 5R0, but the second, which was obviously a female due to the darker, heavier necklace seemed to be wearing a blue ring on the left leg. After a bit of patience we were finally able to read the ring number as ‘6J8’, which has been traced back to this bird being a 2024 female from central, southern Scotland in the Tweed Valley. This is exactly the scenario we’ve been waiting and hoping for as we now have three available males who are in search for newly arrived females. Now its way too late for them to attempt to breed this season, and both are just 2-years old, however if 5R0 is smart and is able to impress her enough to stay, there’s a chance they could stay around the harbour all summer and adopt a nest platform somewhere which would be great news….lets watch this space. In the mean time, there are still two other males (5H3 and 5H6) that are also seeking out females so if a few more were to turn up, it wouldn’t be a bad thing.

The most random sighting of the day goes to a male Red-breasted Merganser which was feeding on the Brownsea Lagoon this morning. Not so random (but still good) was a single Little Tern also on the Brownsea Lagoon. An adult White-tailed Eagle was in the Wareham Channel this morning as were 2 Osprey and 1 Marsh Harrier. This evening 5 Whimbrel flew over Upton.

Female Osprey 6J8 (left) and male 5R0 (right) landing briefly on a harbour nest platform this afternoon

Female Osprey 6J8 briefly showing her blue darvic ring on harbour nest platform this afternoon