What a difference a year makes. It was June 12^th 2019 that saw all of our hearts here at BoPH go through the roof when we received a photo from one of our Poole Harbour nest cams of 2 blue-ringed Osprey on one of the Poole Harbour nest platforms, one of one we knew to be female CJ7 but the second was a mystery male. It was exciting because spring 2019 was when we could possibly see the return of one of the chicks we raised and relapsed back in 2017 return for the first time. What followed was a day of intense fieldwork around the harbour trying to track down this mystery bird to see if we identify who it was. Anyway, after several hours of trying we eventually got lucky and were able to confirm it to be one of our males from 2017, LS7. Last summer they pair boned and things were really looking good for this spring. Sadly, as we all know by now poor LS7 never made it back this, likely having dies on migration either last autumn or this spring. Interestingly, from conversations with other osprey workers around the UK it sounds as if a number of ‘adult’ Osprey didn’t arrive back this spring, possibly due to the cold and persistent NE wind stayed in place in southern Europe during the latter part of March and early April, possibly forcing migrating birds out into the Atlantic. We’ll never know what happened to LS7, but what we experienced this spring is one of the tragic realties of Osprey ecology, and all we can do is press on, hope and wait for female Osprey CJ7 to find a new mate over the coming springs. We’re confident she will, but we just wanted to take some tome today remembering LS7 and provide some nice photos of when he was active around the harbour last summer.

Else in the harbour today at Lytchett Fields a Spoonbill dropped down onto Lytchett Fields which is a good early summer record. Crossbill seem to have a good season with numerous groups in and around the outskirts of Wareham Forest. On the Brownsea Lagoon, Sandwich Tern chick totals currently stand at 175 which is great news and is apparently a higher than normal rate of productivity according to the DWT.

First image we received of LS7 on this day last year

First photo we took after tracking him down later that day

First time CJ7 and LS7 visited their ‘chosen’ nest together

Common Crossbill – Southern edge of Wareham Forest