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!’