A group of 30 young conservationists recently had an unforgettable experience when they got to study the first wild fledged White-tailed Eagle to be born in Dorset in nearly 240 years. The encounter occurred in mid-January during an organised boat trip in Poole Harbour for children aged between 13-18, which was being hosted by Dorset based charity Birds of Poole Harbour as part of their ‘Young Birders’ club, a project that aims to inspire and educate teenagers on the importance of nature recovery.

The young eagle known as ‘G834’ is the first White-tailed Eagle to fledge from a wild nest in Dorset since the 1700’s and is a direct result of the popular reintroduction program that’s currently being carried out from the Isle of Wight by Forestry England and the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation. During the boat trip, the group of budding young conservationists got to observe and study G834 eating a flatfish on the mudflats in a quiet corner of Poole Harbour. Fish are the favoured prey item of the eagles, but this was the first time the youngster had been observed behaving in this way, which is a very encouraging sign of its development. For most of the guests on board this was the first time they’d ever seen a White-tailed Eagle. These majestic birds were once widespread in southern England but became extinct in England in 1780 due to relentless persecution. The project based on the Isle of Wight aims to restore a breeding population to England, and the signs are already very good, with two pairs nesting successfully in southern England in 2025.

Birds of Poole Harbour Project organiser Sam Ryde said:

“This was such an important and historical moment. To be able to show a group of young conservationists a wild born White-tailed Eagle right here in Dorset is beyond special. Not only that, to be able to explain to them how these projects work, why it’s important and actually show them the outcome is what it’s all about. These reintroduction projects change the baseline for what’s considered ‘normal’ in these landscapes. For many people here in Dorset and Poole Harbour White-tailed Eagles are a new-comer due to the fate they suffered all those years ago. However, kids will now grow up in Dorset with White-tailed Eagles having always been a part of their local heritage, which they’ll want to continue to protect and conserve”

White-tailed Eagles are the largest bird of prey species in the UK with a wingspan of up to 2.5m and their diet consists mostly of fish, waterbirds, carrion and small mammals. The parents of G834 were released from the Isle of Wight in 2020 as part of the licenced reintroduction and spent the first few years of their lives exploring the UK, with the male, known as ‘G463’ even venturing as far as Sweden in the third year of his life. The adult pair formed in spring 2023 and spent the rest of that year and the whole of 2024 establishing their territory in Dorset, before successfully breeding in the summer of 2025. The young eagle fledged from the Dorset nest in August of 2025 but promptly disappeared off out of county for the rest of the year and wasn’t seen again until his return in early January. All of the eagles are fitted with small satellite trackers so the project team know exactly where they are at all times, meaning they could monitor the young eagles’ progress as he moved around southern England. The observation of G834 from the Birds of Poole Harbour Young Birders boat trip was the first time he’d been seen back in the harbour since fledging in August last year, making the whole experience even more important, exciting and historical.

Young conservationist and guest on board the memorable trip Joe Scorey explained:

“It had been a busy first hour on the boat trip with bustling mud flats of Avocet, Dunlin and Black-tailed Godwits. We had been enthralled with hundreds of birds zipping past the boat. When all of a sudden a shout from the back of the boat broke the cold winter air, “White tailed Eagle!!!!” A mad dash to find a viewing point broke out, binoculars scrambling to find the bird then all of a sudden a hush spread around the boat all captivated by the sheer size of the bird”

Young White-tailed Eagle G834 seen from Young Birders Boat Trip – Joe Scorey

Another young conservationist on board Harry Bridle added:

“To see eagles in the wild after an absence from the region for a few hundred years and seeing them successfully thriving shows that reintroductions are great and should be encouraged more and more. To see such an impressive bird is really amazing and I think these projects can really spark an interest in the younger community. I am also really keen to see other projects develop such as the idea of bringing Chough back to the Dorset coast”

Young White-tailed Eagle G834 seen from Young Birders Boat Trip – Joe Scorey

Tim Mackrill from the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation concluded:

“It is really encouraging that the eagles are fitting into the landscape in southern England so well, and that members of the public get such a thrill from seeing them. It is wonderful that Birds of Poole Harbour are providing an opportunity for people of all ages to see the eagles from their brilliant boat trips, and particularly heartening that young people are growing up with a chance of seeing a White-tailed Eagle on their doorstep, like those lucky enough to be on board this particular trip were able to do. We hope that seeing these majestic birds back in southern England demonstrates to people that it is possible to restore nature and lost species.”

Job Advert: Birds of Poole Harbour Engagement Assistant

Birds of Poole Harbour is a Dorset-based charity with a local community focus, committed to conserving and interpreting the important birdlife in the Poole Harbour area. We deliver a range of exciting events and projects. We are looking for an enthusiastic Engagement Assistant to support our team in delivering our public engagement and project work.

Position: Engagement Assistant

Hours: 20 hours per week, with the possibility of extra hours during the high season (April to September). Due to the nature of our events, this role requires regular weekend work (typically 3 weekends per month) and occasional early-morning/evening hours.

Location: Poole and Wareham-based, with travel to events around Poole Harbour

Annual Leave: 28 days inclusive of bank holidays (pro-rata for part-time roles)

Salary: £13,988.52 (FTE £27,976)

Essential Criteria

• Friendly and warm interpersonal style
• Excellent verbal communication skills and a confident public speaker
• Ability to work effectively as part of a busy team
• Proactive and self-motivated attitude
• Excellent bird identification skills

Desirable Skills and Experience

• Experience of working with volunteers
• Strong written communication skills
• Experience in delivering events
• Knowledge of local birding sites and conservation projects, including the Poole Harbour Osprey Reintroduction Project
• Full driving licence and access to a vehicle

What you’ll be working on

You’ll be helping our team deliver an ambitious events schedule throughout the year, including our award-winning boat trips, our Carey Osprey Tours (led in partnership with Careys Secret Garden), and our guided walks, ID Courses and Pop-up watches. This role will be well-suited to an enthusiastic ornithologist with excellent communication skills and a strong knowledge of British birds.

You’ll also be involved with our project work and youth engagement programmes, including our School Bird Boat Project and Young Birders Club.

Full training will be provided, and more details on our project work and events can be found here: www.birdsofpooleharbour.co.uk.

To Apply

If you would like to apply, please email our Operations and Finance Assistant, Helen, at helen@birdsofpooleharbour.co.uk with a CV (2 pages maximum) and a PDF with answers to the following questions:

• What attracted you to apply for this position? (200 words max)
• Why do you believe you are well-suited for the role of Events Assistant at Birds of Poole Harbour? (500 words max)

Birds of Poole Harbour is an equal opportunities employer and is happy to provide additional information or accommodations within our hiring practices to support applicants. Please complete our Equal Opportunities form and submit it alongside your application, should you wish to do so.

Interviews commencing W/C 16th February 2026 with the option for online interviews available. Please note that the interview will involve a UK bird species identification test.

We are excited to announce a brand new project to deliver 10 inspiring Conservation Careers Talks to secondary schools, sixth forms, and colleges in the Poole area, free of charge. They will be delivered from November to March.

The talks will explore how young people can be involved with nature’s recovery in Dorset, the variety of roles available, and include advice on how to gain experience in the conservation field. With so many exciting projects happening in southern England, now is a fantastic time to get involved. We’ll discuss what opportunities are available locally, including grants, volunteering, and our very own Young Birders Club. There will also be time to ask plenty of questions, with a Q&A at the end.

We hope to inspire and encourage the next generation to pursue a career in conservation whilst raising awareness that working with nature is for everyone, no matter your background.

If you’re interested in a conservation careers talk for your school, please email schools@birdsofpooleharbour.co.uk

This project is kindly funded by the Cameron Bespolka Trust, who also support our free Young Birders Club for 13-18 year olds.

Our friends at the Roy Dennis Wildlife foundation and Forestry England have an exciting update for you all:

PRESS RELEASE

A record THREE White-tailed Eagle chicks have successfully fledged from TWO wild nests in England. The chicks were reared by White-tailed Eagles that were released as part of the ground breaking conservation project by Forestry England and the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation to return this lost species to England.

Two different pairs of White-tailed Eagles successfully bred this year. This included the first chick in Dorset for over 240 years, and two chicks raised in a nest in Sussex.

A single male chick (G834) fledged from a nest in Dorset. The parent birds – G463 (male) and G466 (female) released in 2020 – settled in the county and paired up in 2023. This is their first successful breeding attempt and made more remarkable by the fact that the male adult bird has only one leg after it lost this four years ago.

Two chicks, both females (G841 and G842), fledged this year from a nest in Sussex. Both are the offspring of two white-tailed eagles released by the project in 2020. The parent birds – G405 and G471 – were the same pairing that bred in 2023 and 2024.

This year’s successful breeding brings the number of these iconic birds born in the wild through the project to six. In 2023 a single chick was born, the first in England since the eighteenth century when the species was lost due to persecution. A further two chicks were born in the summer of 2024.

All of the chicks are fitted with satellite tags so that the project team can track their progress. Over the last year they have used satellite data to follow the fledglings as they have explored widely across the UK.

White-tailed Eagles typically reach breeding maturity at around four or five years old. From the birds released by the project, three pairs have formed and established territories in southern England. Several of the younger birds are also present in potential future breeding areas typically close to freshwater wetlands or the coast, where the birds can catch fish, which is their preferred food. In time, it is hoped that a population of 6-10 breeding pairs will become established within 60 kilometres of the release site on the Isle of Wight.

Roy Dennis OBE, Founder of the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation, said:

“We are delighted to see another year of successful breeding and that two pairs have now reached this key stage. This is a long-term project, and it will take some years before the population is fully restored but the progress made over the last year has been incredibly encouraging. We have some well-established pairs and two that are actively breeding. We hope to build on this progress, and I’m really pleased that we have been able to release an additional 8 birds this year to further boost the population.”

“I always find it particularly rewarding to see so much support for these magnificent birds and the positive impact they are having on so many people’s relationship with the natural world.”

Steve Egerton-Read, White-Tailed Eagle Project Officer for Forestry England, said:

“We have been patiently monitoring these nests for many months and hoping they would be successful. It is always such an exciting time but also incredibly nerve wracking! This was especially the case for the pair of eagles in Dorset who were first time parents. It was an incredible moment when we caught our first glimpse of that tiny fluffy chick in the nest, but equally, it is anxious time as the parents get to grips with what they need to do. Ultimately, it has been so rewarding to see this pair of eagles, often spotted in and around Dorset, care for the chick all the way through to it fledging the nest. Now it won’t be long until he is starting his own journey and hopefully one day, he will breed somewhere in southern England.

“Returning lost species like the White-tailed Eagle is a key part of Forestry England’s approach to restoring biodiversity and helping nature to recover. We hope that in years to come these iconic birds will become a much more common sight, inspiring future generations and deepening their connection with nature.”

White-tailed Eagles are Britain’s largest birds of prey with a wingspan of up to 2.5 metres and were once widespread across England. Human persecution caused their extinction, with the last pair breeding in southern England in 1780. In 2019, Forestry England and the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation began reintroducing these iconic birds to the English landscape.

To date, 45 young White-tailed Eagles have been released. This includes eight birds released this summer from the team’s base on the Isle of Wight.

The reintroduction of White-tailed Eagles is conducted under licence from Natural England, the Government’s wildlife licensing authority. Birds for release are collected from wild nests in Scotland under licence from NatureScot before being transported to England with valuable support from Civil Air Support. The birds are subsequently reared and released on the Isle of Wight, all birds released by the project are fitted with satellite tags.

White-tailed Eagles are a protected species under the Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981). Disturbing, destroying or interfering with them and their nests are criminal offences. The specific locations of this year’s nests are not being disclosed for the welfare of the birds and to prevent any disturbance to them or the landowner this year or if the birds return to breed at the same location.

ENDS

This is of course brilliant news and such a huge milestone for the project. Over the last 5-years the White-tailed Eagles from the reintroduction program have given many thousands of people a fantastic set of nature experiences across the Dorset landscape and from our series of boat trips during the year. Therefore it’s incredibly important not to discuss, suggest, speculate or rumour where nest sites may be online or on social media as it’s irrelevant to the success. Whats important is the fact they’ve found somewhere safe and secure to breed and all being well will do so for years to come.

Adult White-tailed Eagle G466 feeding chick at Dorset nest – Forestry England

This is really exciting!

Are you visiting Mallorca this spring or autumn? For the first time ever our friends at the Fundación Vida Silvestre Mediterránea (FVSM) organisation are opening the gates to their private Ariant Biological Reserve in the NW of Mallorca, where they’ll be hosting a series of guided Vulture and birding experiences for small groups of guests. Ariant is a stunning 1000ha biological reserve with nature recovery and biodiversity protection at the very core of its landscape. The FVSM and Black Vulture Conservation Foundation (BVCF) were responsible for the recovery of Black Vulture across Mallorca and are now looking to showcase and educate the public on Black and Griffon Vulture protection in Mallorca in a safe and controlled environment, with Ariant being one off the best places in Mallorca to see Vultures along with a whole range of other bird species. Be guided by and hear direct from the teams involved in the Black Vultures recovery and who manage Ariant as they guide you around the reserve as you watch wild vultures on the wing, in one of the most pristine and beautiful landscapes on the island. These new tours also include the free use of binoculars and mid-way we’ll be stopping for a traditional Mallorcan snacks and refreshments. There’s no doubt these tours will be an excellent new addition to your birding itinerary and holiday in Mallorca. Places are limited for each session, so be sure to book early to avoid disappointment.

For full information about these exciting new tours visit the FVSM website here, and scroll down for the English translation of the tour information:

https://fvsm.eu/ofrecemos/excursion-de-observacion-de-buitres/#ingles%20recuperacion

For enquiries or to book onto a session please email: educacion@procustodia.org

Birds of Poole Harbour (BoPH) is a small Dorset-based charity that was established in 2013. Our vision is to inspire hope for nature through delivering innovative conservation projects and high-quality outreach events that enthuse the public about the exciting environmental work happening in South Dorset.

In the last three years our charity has grown significantly, accelerated by the successes of local reintroduction projects, and we are now connecting more people with Poole Harbour’s birdlife than ever before. Our team is driven by our passion for the local area and its wildlife, recognising the importance of being proactive in response to challenges faced by our sector and the natural world.

We are looking for maternity cover for the role of BoPH Manager, starting in the spring of 2025. Within this role, you will be facilitating the continuation of our charity’s growth at this exciting time, and providing support to our team of staff and volunteers. This is a varied role, with opportunities to be involved in both our conservation and engagement work. We are looking for someone to lead our team with an understanding of our charity’s ethos and share our core values of kindness, authenticity, ambition and effectiveness.

Position: Birds of Poole Harbour Manager

Hours: 40 hours per week, with occasional weekend work required. This position would run from 14th April 2025 to 31st May 2026, with some flexibility if required.

Salary: £36,500 per annum

Location: Primarily Poole and Wareham-based, with occasional optional home-working

Annual Leave: 28 days per annum, including bank holidays

Key Responsibilities:

• Providing overall management of the charity, working closely with our Chair of Trustees to make sure that the charity’s operations are guided by the our core values, aims and strategy, while operating sustainably
• Overseeing the management of our team, providing support where required, including line management of 4-5 staff members and recruitment of new team members
• Ensuring the organisation fulfils its legal, statutory and regulatory responsibilities, with support from our trustee board
• Working with our Operations Manager to prepare and review the charity annual budget and annual report
• Maintaining effective communication with our Chair of Trustees, and regularly supply the board with charity updates and reports with support from the Operations Manager
• Providing management support for our conservation and engagement projects
• Identifying funding opportunities to diversify the charity’s income streams
• Maintaining and growing relationships with charity partners
• Working with our engagement team to develop our annual events calendar and providing support with the delivery of our events when required
• Ensuring a high standard of delivery for our outreach projects and events, overseeing feedback from the public to continue our growth

Job Specification:

To be successful in this position, these are the skills and experience that are most important:

• Good interpersonal and leadership skills
• Experience of effective line management
• Experience of managing and working to budgets
• Enthusiasm for wildlife conservation and birding
• Being able to work effectively as part of a small team
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Considered decision-maker, acting in the best interest of the charity and our staff
• Ability to confidently act with initiative in a fast-paced environment
• Good organisational skills, being able to oversee multiple projects and staff

It would also be advantageous to have the following skills and experience:

• Knowledge of Poole Harbour and its surrounding area, with an understanding of local conservation projects
• Strong practical knowledge of bird identification
• Experience of applying for funding opportunities
• Understanding of charity governance

If you would like to apply, please email our Operations Manager Laura at laura@birdsofpooleharbour.co.uk with a CV (2 pages maximum) and a PDF with answers to the following questions:

• What attracted you to apply for this position? (250 words max)
• Why do you believe you are well-suited for the role of BoPH Manager at Birds of Poole Harbour? (600 words max)

Closing date: 9am on Wednesday 26th February

Interviews commencing W/B 3rd March with the option for online interviews available.

If you have any questions or queries about the role or application process, please contact our BoPH Manager Liv Elwood via liv@birdsofpooleharbour.co.uk. Birds of Poole Harbour are an equal opportunities employer and are happy to provide additional information or accommodations within our hiring practices to support applicants with additional needs.

Birds of Poole Harbour (BoPH) is a small Dorset-based charity that was established in 2013. Our vision is to inspire hope for nature through delivering innovative conservation projects and high-quality outreach events that enthuse the public about the exciting environmental work happening in South Dorset.

In the last three years our charity has grown significantly, accelerated by the successes of local reintroduction projects, and we are now connecting more people with Poole Harbour’s birdlife than ever before. Our team is driven by our passion for the local area and its wildlife, recognising the importance of being proactive in response to challenges faced by our sector and the natural world. 

We are looking for an enthusiastic part-time Osprey Engagement Assistant to support our team in delivering our public engagement offer through the Spring and Summer of 2025.

Position: Osprey Engagement Assistant

Hours: 15 hours per week, w/b 14th April – 31st August. Due to the nature of our events, this position will require working regular Saturdays and outside of regular working hours

Salary: £12.60 per hour (Real Living Wage)

Location: Wareham and Poole based

Annual Leave: 33 hours

What you’ll be working on: You’ll be helping our team to deliver an ambitious events schedule through the spring and summer, including our Carey Osprey Tours led in partnership with Careys Secret Garden, as well as our Osprey Cruises during August.

During the spring and early summer you will primarily be responsible for delivering three 2-hour sessions per day to view and interpret the nesting Ospreys at Careys Secret Garden with groups of up to 12 people, informing them about the exciting Poole Harbour Osprey Translocation Project, the nesting pair, and engaging them with the other birdlife that can be found onsite. Later in the summer, you will provide support with spotting and commentary on our award-winning Osprey Cruises around Poole Harbour. This role will be well-suited to an aspiring and enthusiastic ornithologist with excellent communication skills and a good knowledge of British birds.

Job Requirements:

To be successful in this position, these are the skills and experience that are most important:

• Friendly and warm interpersonal style
• Excellent verbal communication skills
• Ability to work effectively as part of a busy team
• Proactive and self-motivated attitude
• Excellent bird identification skills

Desirable Skills and Experience:

• Experience of working with volunteers
• Experience of delivering events
• Knowledge of local birding sites and conservation projects, including the Poole Harbour Osprey Reintroduction Project
• Full driving licence and access to a vehicle

Full training will be provided and more detail on our project work and events can be found here: www.birdsofpooleharbour.co.uk. Please note that this position will be offered subject to the successful return of the nesting pair of Osprey to Careys Secret Garden, and that we will be unable to fulfil the role if they do not return.

If you would like to apply, please email our Operations Manager Laura at laura@birdsofpooleharbour.co.uk with a CV (2 pages maximum) and a PDF with answers to the following questions:

• What attracted you to apply for this position? (200 words max)
• Why do you believe you are well-suited for the role of Osprey Engagement Assistant with Birds of Poole Harbour? (500 words max)

Closing date: 9am on Monday 3rd March

Interviews commencing W/B 10th March with the option for online interviews available. Please note that the interview will involve a UK bird species identification test.

If you have any questions or queries about the role or application process, please contact our BoPH Manager Liv via liv@birdsofpooleharbour.co.uk. Birds of Poole Harbour are an equal opportunities employer and are happy to provide more information or accommodations within our hiring practices to support applicants with additional needs.

Every winter for the last 11 years, our charity takes out up to 1200 school children around Poole Harbour on School Bird Boats to give young people the opportunity to explore and learn about the fantastic wildlife and local area they live in. All of these children come from local primary schools and join us completely free of charge thanks to sponsorship from local cosmetics company Lush. All trips leave from Poole Quay with Greenslades Pleasure Boats to explore a large part of the harbour and its special habitats for 2 hours, led by our staff and volunteers.

We provide a huge amount of information and learning on topics like bird migration, adaptations, human livelihoods, the SPA (Special Protection Area), and much more so that the children understand and appreciate the local area and wildlife. The children go away being able to identify an Avocet from a Black-tailed Godwit, a Great Black-Backed Gull from a Herring Gull, and a Cormorant from a Shag. They do all of this while keeping a list of everything we saw, contributing to the surveying and protections within the harbour. This is a great learning tool with so many of the pupils taking great interest and going on to find more of a passion for the natural world in their classrooms and homes. 

In recent years, species like White-tailed Eagles, Marsh Harrier and Peregrine Falcon being regular sightings on our School Bird Boats, making nature recovery and species reintroductions a major topic and feature the trips. This would have been unimaginable just a few years ago and is a fantastic experience for young people, demonstrating nature recovery in action for the next generation.

For the duration of our trips, each of the children receives a pair of binoculars to bring them closer to the wildlife that we encounter. After 10 years of running this project, many of our binoculars have become damaged or worn out. We are now hoping to replace all of our school optics with good quality binoculars that are well-suited for young birders, so that every child can have the best experience and opportunity to see great birds on our trips. In the last year, Opticron has already kindly replaced nearly half of the binoculars used in the project free of charge, helping us to reach this goal. We are now looking to replace the remaining old binoculars, by launching a public fundraiser in the run-up to Christmas. We will be donating any of our usable old binoculars to schools for use in their classrooms, lessons and holiday birdwatching kits.

We’d greatly appreciate any support that you can give so that we can continue to run this free school bird boat project, inspiring the next generation of nature conservationists. Thank you!

This winter we will have taken out 19 different schools on 26 separate trips, with almost 1300 children coming on board. Some of the comments we had from last season have included: ‘It was the best trip ever!’, ‘I loved it’, ‘our class birdwatching kit was in high demand for the Easter holiday’ and ‘the children were all extremely inspired’. Many of the schools have gone on to watch the Birds of Poole Harbour Osprey Webcams during school time, another great learning tool for the kids and fantastic for them to follow a local conservation success story.

Photo by Alison Copland

In 2022 Ospreys nested in Southern Britain again for the first time in 180 years. The pair known as female CJ7 and male 022 set up their historic first territory at the Carey Secret Garden, and were a result of a 5-year reintroduction program which was carried out in partnership between our Birds of Poole Harbour charity and the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation. In the first year of nesting (2022) the pair raised two young, ringed 5H1 and 5H2. In the second year of nesting (2023) they raised three young, ringed 5H3, 5H4 and 5H5. Then, incredibly, the summer of 2024 saw an amazing FOUR young being raised, ringed 5R1, 5R2, 5R3 and 5H6. This was a historic moment and to date, seems to have been the only Osprey nest in the country that year that raised four youngsters. There were several exciting elements to this story. Firstly, that when the chicks were ringed it was logged that all four youngsters were male, which is a great situation for the local area, as it’s the males that tend to return to their ‘local’ areas in future years to set up territories of their own. Secondly, the whole season from arrival to departure was captured on our HD livestream camera, and was viewed live by thousands of viewers over the course of the season.

Now that we’re well into the start of winter it can be easy to forget just how special the 2024 season was, so, to celebrate, we’ve created a five episode series of ‘Osprey Season 2024’ which highlights every intimate moment from start to finish and will allow you all to re-live the best moments from the nest this summer.

Over the next 5-weeks we’ll release a new episode every Friday evening which will showcase each phase of the season, starting with tonights Episode 1: The Arrival

Special thanks must go to our volunteer Alison Copland who spent almost a month cutting and editing all the footage together.

We hope you enjoy it as much as we have!

Carey Osprey nest Season 2024: Part 1 – Arrival, egg laying and egg hatching

Carey Osprey nest Season 2024: Part 2 – They grow up so fast!!

Carey Osprey nest Season 2024: Part 3 – Fish fights and first fledging

Carey Osprey nest Season 2024: Part 4 – Post fledging madness!!!

Carey Osprey nest Season 2024: Part 5 – Learning to fly and a sad goodbye