We’re delighted to announce that our Poole Harbour Osprey pair CJ7 and 022 are officially grandparents!! Their chick 5H1 made history back in 2022 when she became the first Osprey to hatch in Southern England since 1847 at the Carey Secret Garden, and she broke the record books again in 2024 when she became the first Poole Harbour hatched Osprey to return to the UK as an adult. Now she’s achieved another major milestone for the project, becoming the first Poole Harbour hatched Osprey to breed successfully!

Remarkably, 5H1 has gone back to her roots, choosing to nest in the East Midlands where her mother CJ7 is originally from. Here she has paired up with male 3AY who hatched in the Rutland population in 2019. They have had incredible success for a first time breeding pair, rearing a whopping 3 chicks to fledging.

5H1 on her nest with her first three chicks 8R3, 8R1 & 8R2

It is not unusual for female Ospreys to disperse long distances to breed, and these movements play an important role in genetic mixing between populations. Given that both of our south coast breeding females (CJ7 and 1H1) originally came from Rutland, it’s wonderful to see these movements now starting to happen in reverse as our population expands. Like her mother before her, 5H1 is playing a vital role in connecting up Osprey populations and helping the species to recover more of its historical range. The nest she and 3AY have settled on is in area monitored by Dr Tim Mackrill, who has been closely watching their progress throughout the season. Sam and Brittany from our Birds of Poole Harbour team were delighted and very fortunate to be able to join Tim recently to help ring the chicks, a truley historic moment for the project.

BoPH’s Sam and Brittany with 5H1’s chick 8R3

This exciting news also comes following an incredibly successful season here on the South Coast, where we now have two breeding pairs of Osprey for the first time since our reintroduction project started in 2017. Our original pair CJ7 and 022 have bred for a fourth year in a row and fledged a phenomenal brood of 4 four chicks for a second year. Our new pair, consisting of translocated male 374 and Rutland female 1H1, have also had a very successful season for first time breeders, fledging two strong chicks, 5R7 and 5R8.

Successful fledging of 5R7 and 5R8 on our new ‘Nest 2’ this summer

And to top it all off we’ve also had the first Poole Harbour hatched male return this year. 5H3 who hatched at the Carey Secret Garden nest in 2023 was first observed back in the harbour in June, and appeared to have already started flirting with passing females, including 6C6, a 2022 female from Lancashire. Could they return next year to become our third breeding pair?

2023 Poole Harbour fledged male Osprey ‘5H3’ exploring the harbour in July 2025 – Mark Wright

Reflecting on all of these successes together, the future of the Osprey population here on the South Coast of England and across the wider UK is looking very bright indeed. Along with yesterday’s news that White-tailed Eagles have bred in Dorset for the first time in over 240 years – thanks to their reintroduction to the Isle of Wight by the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation and Forestry England – there is so much cause for celebration when it comes to nature’s recovery in Dorset. We’re incredibly proud to see all of this hard work coming to fruition and so excited to share these stories with so many people through our upcoming Osprey Cruises and Osprey & Eagle Pop-up Watches throughout August and September. We hope to see many of you there and to celebrate with you.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to making this season such enormous success, from our staff and volunteers to our collaborators and supporters. If you would like to support our work please click here to Donate to our Osprey Project.

2025 Carey Osprey Chicks 5R6, 5R4, 5R3 & 5R5

We have an incredibly exciting announcement to share!

As many of you will know, last year one of our males from the 2021 cohort of our Poole Harbour Osprey Translocation Project, ringed 374, spent the latter part of the summer visiting several of our nest platforms, where he encountered a female from Rutland, ringed 1H1, who fledged from the livestreamed Manton Bay nest back in 2022. They spent much of the latter part of the summer together establishing a pair bond and moving around several sites, giving us high hopes that they might both return this spring and form the second pair of breeding Ospreys in Southern England since 1847.

Sure enough, 1H1 returned in very good time this season and immediately visited the nest site at Careys Secret Garden, trying her luck with 022 before CJ7 arrived back on March 25th. After swiftly being seen off by CJ7 upon her return on March 26th, 1H1 spent some time roaming the local area and visiting many of the other nest platforms which she and 374 had found the previous summer. With so much spare time on her hands she even ventured further afield to Somerset in early April, but the pull to return to the south coast was strong, no doubt because she was anticipating the return of 374. We were all feeling much the same way!

Then, on the 5th April, during one of our Spring Safari Cruises, a blue-ringed male Osprey passed the boat. Upon inspecting a photo taken by a guest onboard we were thrilled to confirm that the leg ring read 374. He was back!

With both birds back safely in the UK, we were monitoring things closely behind the scenes, hoping that 1H1 was still in the local area and that the pair would be reunited. Just over 24 hours later on April 6th, they did indeed find one other, landing together on one of our new nest platforms which we’d built in July last year at a private site. They began bonding again straight away, and over the following weeks got straight down to business, adding a huge quantity of sticks to the nest, carrying out daily fish swaps and performing plenty of mating attempts (this bit always seems to take a bit of practice for first timers)!

We are now delighted to announce that on April 24th, 1H1 laid her first egg! A clutch of three eggs was laid in total, and on June 3rd their first chick hatched quickly followed by a second on June 5th: an excellent result for first time breeders!

This is another major milestone for the project, and is a real testament to the hard work that goes into reintroduction projects! Not only is 374 a direct product of this process himself, but 1H1 is also from Rutland: a population which was established by reintroduction nearly three decades ago. In fact, she is the granddaughter of translocated male, no less than the famous 03 who was released in 1997 (otherwise known as Mr Rutland due to being the first breeding male in the population and the vast contribution he made to the population over his lifetime)! Their story mirrors almost exactly that of our first pair 022 and CJ7, and is another demonstration of the vital role that dispersing females play in ensuring the health and connectivity of populations.

Ensuring the ongoing protection and success of this important new nest is our absolute priority, and therefore we will not be sharing the location of the site publicly. We appreciate your support in maintaining this privacy, and therefore ask that if you do know or learn of its location that you do not share this information with others. As always we are enormously grateful for the support of the local Rural Crime team and the landowner in ensuring the safety of the breeding pair, and we are working alongside them to provide protection and monitor progress on the ground and via remote cameras. Please be aware that there is no livestream camera on this nest, but we will provide updates on major milestones as the season progresses. In these future communications we will refer to the site simply as “Nest 2”.

Another huge thank you goes to the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation for the support and advice they have provided throughout this process, and to our own staff, volunteers, and all those who have helped to fund the installation of new nest sites and cameras, allowing us to support and monitor this growing population. If you’d also like to make a contribution to our Osprey work you can donate here.

We share our congratulations with the team at Rutland and all of the supporters of both projects. We hope you enjoy the photos and videos below, captured over the course of the season so far, and we can’t wait to see what unfolds across the two(!!) nest sites during the rest of the season!

1H1 and 374 landing on their new nest on April 6th

1H1 performing some pretty major nest constructions early in the season

1H1 and 374 inspecting their first egg lay

1H1 settling down into her new incubation routine

New Osprey pair 374 & 1H1 feeding their new chicks 08/06/25

New Osprey pair 374 & 1H1 feeding their new 2-week old chicks 17/06/25

What a fabulous few years it’s been for our Poole Harbour Ospreys, CJ7 and 022. Since their first successful breeding back in 2022, the pair have produced a further 7 young, with hopefully another 4 this year all being well. With all the excitement, we thought it was about time to start up our Osprey diaries again. As usual you can watch the nest live 24/7 on our YouTube channel. However, on this page we’ll be providing weekly summaries of all the action from the nest and the harbour, including what we’ve been seeing from our Carey Osprey Tours and of other Ospreys spotted in the harbour. 

22nd May – 29th May

Thursday (22nd May) marked the day of the first Osprey chick of the season, hatching early in the morning at 5:30am. Later that morning, it had its first feed, which was a bit of a messy affair! CJ7 soon got back into the swing of things. 

First feed for the first chick of the season

Just a couple of hours after, we noticed a crack in a second egg and sure enough by 7pm, the second egg had hatched. This is due to a behaviour called delayed incubation, where incubation is postponed until the second egg is laid, resulting in a more synchronised hatching.  Just two more to go! On Friday, during our afternoon Carey Osprey Tour, a Grey Heron got a bit too close to the nest and we watched as 022 went into full defence mode. He chased the Heron up into the sky for a couple of minutes, before it eventually got the message and flew away.

The second chick to hatch shortly after the first

There wasn’t long to wait for the next hatching, as the third egg hatched late on Saturday night. It was fabulous to see all three chicks doing well and CJ7 and 022 being so attentive as usual.

CJ7 feeding her three chicks

Away from the nest during Sunday’s Spring Safari, the BoPH team saw 022 in the Wareham Channel firstly catching a fish, before being harassed by a Common Buzzard and then skydancing in reaction to seeing another Osprey in the harbour identified as 1AO, a Scottish ringed male. 

Scottish ringed Osprey – 1AO – dizzygirl66.bsky.social

And that wasn’t the only intruder! On Monday, we had 2-year-old Rutland female 3H9 pay a visit to the Carey nest, whilst CJ7 and 022 were there. Later on, she landed on another of our nest platforms, joined by 022. She’s also been seen at other spots around the south coast this week. Hopefully she’ll stay around and who knows, could be a future local breeder!

022 (left) with 3H9 (right) on another nest platform in the harbour

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, the fourth and final chick of the Carey Osprey nest hatched. CJ7 and 022 are great parents and it’s always a joy to see them very carefully feeding the chicks so each gets a sufficient feed including the fourth chick. It’s only in about 1% of Osprey clutches that they lay 4 eggs, and even rarer for them to all hatch. Now that the hatching is out the way, we should see a rapid growth and development of the chicks over the next few weeks, very quickly turning from being extremely cute to looking like mini dinosaurs!

Four Osprey chicks on the nest

What a week it’s been – here’s to another successful season for our Carey Ospreys.

30th May – 6th June

Welcome back to the Osprey Diaries. 

Now that 022 and CJ7 have hatched their four chicks, they are on high alert for any threats from predators. On Saturday, the last day of spring, one of Poole Harbour’s adult white-tailed eagles flew over the nest. This also happened during incubation, when CJ7 hunkered down over the eggs and kept an osprey eye out as it soared overhead. Today, 022 soared into the sky and made sure to see the white-tailed eagle on its way!

By Wednesday, our chicks had grown a lot already. Chick number four is quite small compared to its siblings, but the eldest are a whole week older. As the younger chick, it doesn’t need quite as much food as its older siblings but still manages to get plenty of fish from 022 and CJ7, especially when chicks one to three are asleep!

Chicks one to three sleep while chick four enjoys a feed

Ospreys, like many bird species, can hold food in their crops for a few hours. Crops are muscular pouches near a bird’s throat, and act as an extension of the oesophagus which can store food for later. For our osprey chicks this is particularly important while they wait for 022 to deliver their next meal.

022 and CJ7 were still keeping their eyes on the skies and visitors to Carey’s Secret Garden were treated to both adults seeing off intruders. At midday, an adult buzzard got too close to the nest for CJ7’s liking. As CJ7 approached the buzzard, it tried to defend itself with its talons. CJ7 briefly flashed hers and the buzzard was soon soaring east. 

Later that afternoon, while both adults were on the nest, a red kite approached. This time, it was 022 who defended the nest, circling around the kite as it flew away. Once the kite was gone, 022 flew back to the nest with a series of acrobatic tumbles. This was another example of sky dancing, mentioned in the last osprey diary, a behaviour that displays stamina to rival ospreys, predators and potential mates. 

Elsewhere in Poole Harbour, Thursday kicked off the weekend of heavy showers and high winds, but that didn’t dissuade 2023 Rutland female 3H9, who was seen visiting one of our other nest platforms on numerous occasions. Fingers crossed she’ll nest here next year with a male!

Female 3H9 on one of our other nest platforms on 6th June

Don’t forget that you can keep up with the Carey Ospreys by watching the 24 hour live feed on our YouTube channel, or you can come and see them in person, plus lots more, with our Carey Osprey Tours. Hopefully, we’ll see you soon!

7th June – 14th June

A week later and the 4 Carey Osprey chicks are definitely in their reptilian-looking stage! Chick number 1 is now over three weeks old, with chick number 4 over 2 weeks old. If you’ve been watching the webcams, you’ll seen they’ve grown and developed incredibly quickly, with their juvenile feathers also emerging. Osprey young are usually almost fully developed by around 5 weeks.

CJ7 with her 4 chicks, feeding chick number 4

It was a cold morning followed by a hot afternoon on Wednesday. 022 brought in a fish at about 8.30 and returned periodically throughout the morning with twigs, and to watch over the chicks while CJ7 stretched her wings. After a long while sat on one of the branches by the nest, CJ7 began pipping and 022 left again to go hunting, returning at 13.58 with the second fish of the day. 

Thursday’s weather was very changeable, with downpours in the morning to sunshine in the afternoon. CJ7 did her best to shelter the chicks from the rain and 022 continued to provide, bringing in a brown trout in the morning and a mullet at midday.

CJ7 attempting to shelter her growing chicks from the rain

On Friday the hot weather continued. There were two fish deliveries from 022 not long after sunrise, then a break for CJ7 to fix up the nest, bringing in twigs which the chicks are started to move around and peck at. She flew east for about 15 minutes and we waited eagerly to see where she had gone. She then returned with a big bundle of hay for the nest. Comfy! At 10am, two Ospreys circled high above the viewing platform though they didn’t seem territorial. We don’t think it was 022 – so perhaps one other Osprey and 3H9 who was seen in the harbour that morning?

The next fish delivery came at midday followed by another before the last Carey Osprey tour wrapped up. The chicks were getting feisty in the nest, with lots of pecking and bickering, but it all settled down come feeding time!  CJ7 was on Buzzard watch a lot of the day, with a raptor fest seen from the Osprey viewing platform including Peregrine, Common Buzzard and lovely views of a hovering Kestrel. 

On Saturday 022 arrived in at 4.30 am with a very early fish, making the most of the early mornings. Later on, at 10:30, CJ7 had a tussle with a red kite low over the nest. Too close for comfort! At 1:30pm that afternoon, CJ7 saw off another red kite (or the same one?) that got too close to the nest. 

CJ7 on watch

We’ve seen 022 on multiple occasions fishing in the Wareham Channel during our Sunset and Summer Safaris, which is always a delight to watch. In other news, on Wednesday, whilst both CJ7 and 022 were on the nest, a new (male?) Osprey was seen in Lytchett Bay. Rutland female 3H9 has also continued to make appearances in the harbour. On Friday morning, she settled on the Middlebere Channel nest platform, viewable from Coombe Heath and RSPB Arne.

Rutland Female 3H9 on the Middlebere nest platform

15th June – 22nd June

It’s been an exciting week for Ospreys all-round! The Carey Osprey chicks are doing incredibly well and CJ7 and 022 have been on raptor watch as the warm weather means Buzzard and Red Kite have been particularly active, soaring on the thermals nearby. The four chicks now have nearly all their juvenile feathers through and are starting to look like their parents! 022 has been bringing in several fish a day, mostly sizeable bass which there are lots of in the harbour at this time of year. At this nest Bass seems to play an important role in their diet in the nestling stage. Chick number 1 is now just over 4 weeks old, almost fully grown!

CJ7 feeding her four chicks

During our Carey Osprey Tours on Tuesday CJ7 flew north at pace and disappeared for a while, so we wonder whether she spotted a distant Goshawk and wasn’t taking any chances.

2 White Stork came close to the nest on Saturday before drifting over Careys Secret Garden, but not a threat to 022 and CJ7.

On Friday, it was all action on the Carey Osprey nest during our tours. Female CJ7 began alarm-calling at 9am in the morning, closely followed by an adult female Honey Buzzard appearing behind the nest and landing in a nearby tree. CJ7 then went in pursuit and we had a fantastic aerial display of both birds, with the Honey Buzzard eventually being driven away. You can see this moment from our Osprey webcams here. 4 Red Kites were seen from the Osprey viewing platform during the afternoon session.

We also announced some extremely exciting news on Friday afternoon. We’re over the moon to say that we now have a second breeding pair of Osprey in southern England, Rutland female 1H1 who fledged from their Manton Bay nest in 2022 and Poole Harbour male 374, who was translocated in 2021 as part of our Osprey project in partnership with the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation. We are delighted to announce that on April 24th, 1H1 laid her first egg! A clutch of three eggs were laid in total, and on June 3rd their first chick hatched quickly followed by a second on June 5th: an excellent result for first time breeders! You can read further about this fantastic news here: https://www.birdsofpooleharbour.co.uk/osprey-news/breaking-news-second-breeding-pair-of-osprey-in-the-south/

1H1 and 374 landing on their new nest on April 6th

On Saturday’s stunning Sunset Cruise male White-tailed Eagle G463 chased down male Osprey 022 for his fish, which he gave up, before going to get another! We saw this during our Osprey Cruises at the end of last Summer, where unsuspecting young Osprey where catching fish a bit too big and the Eagles quickly caught on. This behaviour of the Eagles ‘pirating’ Ospreys and other species for food, in this case fish, is called kleptoparasitism.

Male White-tailed Eagle G463 chasing down male Osprey 022 – Harry McBride

23rd June – 30th June

It was another exciting week for ospreys in the south. The hot weather has been bringing many raptors close to the nest, with CJ7 on high alert for any threats. There were Peregrines, Hobbies, Kestrels, Buzzards and Red kites, the latter two CJ7 has been seeing off with particularly acrobatic displays in flight. On Wednesday evening, we had an amazing sight of CJ7 seeing off an adult Honey Buzzard, with a Hobby flying up above at the same time!

On Thursday, despite the heat, morning drizzle and high winds meant conditions for hunting weren’t favourable, with 022 not returning to the nest with food until the early afternoon on several days. Ospreys hunt for top-feeding fish, those that swim close to the surface. Poor weather conditions can disrupt the surface of the water and make prey difficult to see for our ospreys. With the chicks growing rapidly, space is becoming limited in the nest. CJ7 is now spending more time out of the nest, sat on perches at the edge of the nest or on top of the webcam. With a few weeks to go until fledging, and the chicks now testing their wings, it’s only going to get more cramped.

Carey Osprey Nest at Night

Throughout the week, chick one (female blue ringed 5R3) has been testing her wings, outstretching and gently beating them. We’re sure that soon she will begin displaying ‘helicoptering’ behaviour – chicks hover just above the nest, testing and strengthening their wings before they fledge. 

Eldest chick (female 5R3) flapping her wings

This was the week that our chicks finally reached the right age for ringing! This is usually done at around 5 weeks and early in the morning so it’s nice and cool. Ringing the chicks is done in-situ, on the nest, under license. With CJ7’s strong instinct to guard her nest and young, her alarm calls tell the chicks to ‘pancake’ to the nest and stay still. The ringing process is done quickly and efficiently with great care, and this small period of disturbance doesn’t deter them from nesting the following year. We can now confirm their ring codes, weights, and sex:

5R3 – 1.75kg – female
5R4 – 1.44kg – male
5R5 – 1.45kg – male
5R6 – 1.35kg – male

The eldest chick, which we ringed 5R3 was a whopping 1.7kg which clearly indicates a female weight, where as the other three were all sub 1.5kg which indicates males. Having three male chicks is always good news, as it is the males which display natal philopatry and have a draw to come back to where they fledged to later breed!

1st July – 8th July

What an eventful week! We’ve had the first ‘helicoptering’ of this years chicks, 022 managed to impress further by bringing in two fish at a time (one on each foot), and it’s getting closer and closer to when we expect them to begin fledging from this Friday (11th July)! Osprey chicks tend to begin fledging at around 7 weeks old. On Thursday (1st) we noticed 5R3 taking the fish brought in by 022 and feeding herself, whilst CJ7 kept on feeding the younger three. We’ll see this happen even more in the next couple of days. On Wednesday, after our last Osprey Tour of the day, we had an ‘intruder’ Osprey high up over the platform. It wasn’t CJ7 and 022 and despite getting distant photographs we weren’t able to identify it or read the ring code, but it’s good to know the nest continues to interest ‘new’ Ospreys. Throughout the week, CJ7 has been on guard for other birds of prey venturing too close to the nest. On Tuesday (8th), she disappeared off the nest for a while, after alarm-calling and stooping down near the bare trees around the nest. Eventually she settled back on the nest, but we were unable to identify what was bothering her. About 15 minutes later, we heard a Common Buzzard calling and could see it was mobbing a Honey Buzzard close to the osprey platform! Perhaps the Honey Buzzard was once again the culprit? Also that afternoon, male chick 5R5 began to helicopter, giving it a good go before settling back onto the nest with his siblings.

Eldest female (5R3) flapping away!

Chicks hunkering down

Unidentified blue-ringed Osprey – Lytchett Bay – Richard Stephenson

022 landing with not 1, but 2 fish!!

5R5 starting to ‘helicopter!’

The fourth egg of the season was laid on Tuesday 22nd April at 13:23, making a complete clutch for the year. Ospreys will typically lay a clutch of three eggs, with only around 1% of Osprey nests estimated to hold four eggs. This is the second year that the pair CJ7 and 022 have produced four eggs, and after the successful fledging and migration of all four chicks last year, we’re hopeful for another great season.

CJ7 standing over her clutch of four eggs

The prior eggs were each laid 3 days apart, with the first laid on the evening of the 13th April. We anticipate hatching to take place from the 20th May onwards, with incubation usually lasting an average of 37 days, often with the first egg taking slightly longer. Both CJ7 and 022 will incubate the eggs, and CJ7 will stay close to the nest at all times, with male 022 doing all of the hunting for the pair.

We’re running our Carey Osprey Tours in partnership with Careys Secret Garden throughout the season, providing views of the nesting birds at a safe distance and the opportunity to learn more about the project. These tours are available by pre-booking only, and we ask that people do not turn up to Careys Secret Garden and attempt to view the nest outside of these tours as it risks disturbing the birds. All available dates up until mid-May can be found here on our website. You can also follow along with all the updates on the LIVE webcams here as we await the next egg to be laid!

After lots of courtship, fish handovers, nest building, mating and the odd intrusion by another Osprey(!) we now have the first egg at the Careys Secret Garden nest. This is fantastic news and 2 days earlier than last year. We’ll expect the next eggs to be laid 3 days apart, so Wednesday could be when we see the next one. The average time for the eggs to hatch is 37 days although the first egg often takes 40 days, due to delayed incubation. So, we’re looking at hatching between 20th-23rd May! Since egg-laying both CJ7 and 022 have been dutifully brooding.

Close-up of the first Egg

Our Carey Osprey Tours start this week offering the exclusive chance to come and see the nesting pair and now their first egg in person! If you’re lucky you could even witness the next eggs being laid. Now that we have our first egg, CJ7 will be spending almost all of her time at the nest as she begins to brood, so it’s a great time to come and see the Carey Ospreys. You can find out more and book here.

CJ7 and her first Egg

You can follow along with all the updates on the LIVE webcams here as we await the next egg to be laid!

The pair, identified by their leg rings as CJ7 (the female) and 022 (the male), have bred at their secluded nest site at Careys Secret Garden near Wareham since 2022. They are currently the only breeding pair in the whole of the South, having become established due to a reintroduction project which started in 2017, led by local charity Birds of Poole Harbour and the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation.

Ospreys CJ7 (left) and 022 (right) reunited

Ospreys are a fish-eating bird of prey, making treacherous migrations each year to breed in the UK, travelling from their wintering grounds usually in western Africa. The species were once present across the whole of the UK, but were sadly lost as a breeding bird due to human persecution. Significant conservation efforts, including reintroductions, have been used to help them return to their former range over the last 70 years, and it is hoped that the Poole Harbour project will help them to spread across the South Coast.

Last year the pair reared a record number of four chicks, which is an uncommon occurrence on UK Osprey nests, and it is hoped that they will do so again this year. 

Liv Elwood, Birds of Poole Harbour Manager, commented: “It’s wonderful to see the return of this special pair of Ospreys once again. They are playing a very important role in the recolonisation of the species in southern England, and we are excited to see what happens on the nest this year. So many members of the public love watching these birds online via the webcams, and it’s stories like these that help give people hope for the future of our wildlife in the UK.”

Ospreys are a Schedule 1 species, meaning that they are protected by law in the UK. Guided tours to be able to see the nesting pair will be announced soon with Birds of Poole Harbour and Careys Secret Garden, but in the meantime the livestream webcams can be watched online via the Birds of Poole Harbour website (www.birdsofpooleharbour.co.uk/osprey/osprey-webcams/).

Female Osprey CJ7 on the nest on Wednesday morning

022 touched down on the nest platform on Saturday 22nd March having been seen carrying a fish from our Spring Safari Cruise. This is 3 days earlier than he’s ever returned before from his wintering grounds, having returned on the 25th March last year.

Male Osprey 022 on the nest this morning

Last year, female CJ7 arrived back to the Careys Secret Garden nest platform on March 26th, but with 022 arriving early, we could easily see CJ7 arrive back sooner. There’s been quite a lot of action on the nest already with 2 Red Kites giving 022 some hassle yesterday and a 2022 Rutland female 1H1 showing up on the nest today (Monday 24th)! With some courtship behaviour already being shared between 022 and 1H1, it will be interesting to see what unfolds on the nest in the next week or so…

022 (right) and 1H1 (left) on the nest together

Follow along at the links below or via the website as we await CJ7’s return and hopefully enjoy another fantastic season!

Osprey Nest Livestream Landscape View Camera

Osprey Nest Livestream Aerial View Camera

The eldest chick (5R0) took off last Sunday 14th July at 9:08am followed by 5R2 a couple of hours later, 5R1 on Thursday morning and finally 5H6 on Monday 22nd at 15:28. This has been an amazing success with all chicks looking in great condition and now learning to explore the skies!

Webcam footage of 5R0 fledging on Sunday 14th July

They’re still coming back to the nest for fish from the parents and will continue to do so for the next few weeks before starting to think about making their migration in August/September. They’ll begin exploring the wider area within the harbour and we’ll hopefully see the young ones starting to explore on our upcoming Osprey Cruises!

This season has been incredibly special so far, and it has been a joy to share the experience with so many people online and at Careys Secret Garden.

If you haven’t been able to see the Ospreys at their nest site your final opportunity this season will be on Wed 24th July & Thu 1st August when we’re running free Osprey pop-up watches at Careys Secret Garden between 11am-3pm, with tours starting on the hour, every hour. We’ll hopefully see the chicks coming back to the nest to be fed by their parents and taking their first few flights!

Access to the pop-ups will only be possible to visitors to the gardens so please make sure to book tickets in advance on the Careys Secret Garden Website. Donations welcome on the day!

Fourth chick 5H6 fledging from the camera pole yesterday