It was bound to happen at some point during this weekend, seeing as the Osprey chicks had been working their wings hard over the last few days, but today it finally happened….Poole Harbour and Dorset saw the first wild fledged Osprey in nearly 200 years in Southern Britain. At 12:08pm, young female ‘5H1’ who had already ‘branched out’ on to a conifer branch to the right of the nest during the morning (and annoyingly out of view) decided to make her first leap of faith and take to the air for the very first time. She did several laps over the nest site area for several minutes, seemingly excited by her new found super power, before then settling down on a branch next to her dad (022) behind the nest, soon followed by CJ7 who had chaperoned her during her maiden flight. Over the course of the early afternoon she then went on to do several more flights around the nest site, practicing her landing techniques, some of which were well drilled, others which were less so! Chick number two, ‘SH2’ almost fledged a few hours later with several high hovering attempts, and it’s almost certain she’ll fledge either tomorrow or Monday.

For anyone sad that the Osprey season may be over once they’ve fledged, never fear, as both chicks will continue to regularly return to the nest over the next few weeks to feed and socialise, and it won’t be until each has left on migration that the Osprey season is truly over. There’s still plenty more action to enjoy over the coming days and weeks yet!

Elsewhere 2 White-tailed Eagles were present in the Wareham Channel at dawn, although the male, G812 soon left and traveled north. However during the late afternoon, female G801 was seen being chased by a gull at the back of Lytchett Fields and headed towards the Wareham Channel. Also at Lytchett fields were 5 Common Sandpiper, 10 Green Sandpiper, 9 Greenshank, 1 Marsh Harrier and 1 Peregrine plus 4 fly over Crossbill. A ringing session at Lytchett Bay produced the first passage Grasshopper Warbler of the autumn with 3 ringed and a decent increase in Sedge Warbler with 15 passage birds. Also the first passage Willow Warbler of the autumn to be ringed and 7 Bearded Tit were ringed in the reed bed. In Middlebere there were 2 Whimbrel, 40 Curlew, 1 Spoonbill and 3 Greenshank. At Swineham there were 10 adult Yellow-legged Gull on the dry Stilt Pools.