Today was all about Osprey’s, and more specifically the multiple key moments that unfolded during the course of the day that signalled quite amazing progress for our Osprey recovery project. It started this morning when our local female CJ7 laid her fourth egg of the 2026 seaon, a feat she’s now completed three years in row. This is an amazing moment and incredibly significant because if all four survive and fledge this summer, that would mean CJ7 and 022 would have fledged 17 juvenile Osprey in to the population all on their own since 2022! As you’ll know we also saw our second successful Osprey nest establish last summer with male 374 and female 1H1 raising 2 juveniles. Both 1H1 and 374 arrived back earlier in April this year and started re-bonding, and this evening we checked our monitoring camera only to find that 1H1 has now laid 3 eggs in total, bettering her clutch size last year. The story for today doesn’t end there though, because from our Spring Safari cruise this AM we had 3 Osprey in and around the Wareham Channel which we initially thought may have been our recent new arrival, 2-year old 5R0 and possibly a couple of migrant individuals. However, this afternoon on a different harbour platform we got images of a new returnee….male 5H3, our 3-year old we’ve been wait for. 5H3 first came back last year as a 2-year old and spent a lot of time in the harbour, and now he’s back there’s a good chance he’s going to want to start looking at territory options. This means the three Osprey we saw this AM could have been 022, 5R0 and 5H3. The most significant fact here is that this is the fist time we’ve ever had multiple un-attached males (excluding 022) present in the harbour which is just what we want, as its the males that stay close to their natal sites to set up territories. With a few weeks left yet for pairs to still be able to form, if any wandering females happen to appear in the next couple of days, things could get very interesting indeed.

Away from Ospreys the Forster’s Tern put on a good show again from our Spring Safari Cruise this AM, fishing off Lake Pier, Ham Common in the Wareham Channel, the Red-spotted Bluethroat was still showing well at Swineham GP, there was a lone Spoonbill on the Brownsea Lagoon, 1 Whinchat was in Holes Bay north, 3 Red Kite were over the Lower Piddle Valley, a Little Ringed Plover was on the Stilt Pools, Swineham, more Swift were arriving and a Hobby was over Hartland Moor.

Female Osprey CJ7 and her 4 eggs this evening

3-year old male Osprey 5H3 back since his return last summer