Welcome back to the Poole Harbour Osprey Diary! With CJ7 and 022 both returning safely back onto their nest on the 25th March at 18:29 and 26th March at 06:40 respectively, it’s been all go ever since! There’s been lots of nest-building, fish deliveries, and plenty of mating. 022 returned back to his old ways, bringing some black plastic onto the nest, mistaking it for nesting material. Thankfully this has been taken away each time and, in the last few years, has not caused issues for the eggs or chicks. We monitor the webcams and site closely 24/7 for occurrences like this. We’ve spoken to landowners locally about removing black plastic from their land, but with the Ospreys travelling several miles to collect nesting material, it is a difficult task to reach all potential sites.

We are thrilled that at 12:56 this afternoon, CJ7 laid her first egg. Eggs tend to be laid 3 days apart, with delayed incubation until the second or third egg is laid not uncommon. This is where the pair will delay the initial incubation of the first egg to limit its development early on. This can bring the hatching times closer together, resulting in a less significant size and development difference between the chicks.

With the pair back for their fifth breeding year, having produced 13 chicks since 2022, we’re wishing them another successful season. There’s lots more to be excited about, with hopes of 5H3, a male chick from the 2023 Carey nest that returned back to the harbour last year (and showed interest in Lancashire female 6C6) for the first time, coming back and potentially pairing up with any roaming females. We’ll also be awaiting to see if any of the 4 chicks from the 2024 Carey nest (5R0, 5R1, 5R2, and 5H6) which were all male, return back to the harbour. 2 year-olds tend to arrive back a bit later in May/June time, as they do not reach breeding age until 3 years old. They’ll spend the summer looking for potential females and nest sites for the following year. We’re also pleased to say that female 1H1 and Poole Harbour translocated male 374, the second pair of Osprey to breed in southern England for over 180 years last year, have returned safely back onto their nest. On top of that, 5H1, the female chick from 2022 (the first year CJ7 and 022 bred), has returned back onto her nest in the East Midlands, where they bred for the first time last year and produced 3 chicks, with her mate Rutland male 3AY!

We’ll be updating this Osprey Diary throughout the season, sharing key moments, sightings from the Osprey Viewing Platform, and any interesting behaviours. This week we also launch our Carey Osprey Tours, an exclusive opportunity to view the Carey Ospreys from a safe distance at our viewing platform in partnership with Carey’s Secret Garden. The viewing of the nest at Carey is carefully managed to avoid any risk of disturbance to the birds and is only possible via booking on to these tours, with a limited number of tickets available for each session, so please make sure to book onto one of the tours in advance if you would like to visit. 

Diary Entry 23/04/26

It’s nearly a whole month since CJ7 and 022 arrived back on their nest! Since then, there’s been lots of action, with nest building, plenty of mating, intruders (!), and now 4 eggs. We’ve had interactions with other birds of prey, including a Red Kite mobbing 022 carrying a fish back onto the nest and both 022 and CJ7 seeing it off on the 18th April. CJ7 laid her first egg on the 14th April at 12:56pm, followed by a second on the 17th April at 08:48am, third on the 20th April at 08:26am, and fourth on 23rd April at 6:57am. The average incubation period is typically 37 days, so we should see hatching begin towards the end of May. CJ7 will do the majority of the incubation, although 022 will take his turn when CJ7 flies off to feed on a fish he’s brought back, or if she needs to stretch her wings!

We had an extremely exciting visit to the nest by an intruder Osprey, none other than CJ7 and 022’s young from 2024, male 5RO on the 21st April at 07:41am. Two year-olds typically arrive back later than breeding adults from May onwards, so the fact that 5R0 is back this early is interesting! Male Ospreys display a behaviour called natal philopatry, which means they are drawn to come back to their natal ground, where they fledged as a youngster. 5R0 was first seen in Devon on the Axe Estuary on the 17th April, before intruding on the Carey nest and being seen off quickly by his parents! We hope that 5RO will stick around, set up his own territory, and breed in the next couple of years.