More beautiful blue sky’s today and some some warmth to go with it. There were 4 Little Ringed Plover on Lytchett Fields this morning with 1 each of House Martin and Swallow over, at the PCW drain 3 Willow Warbler were opposite KFC and 2 Blackcap were in scrub. At Middlebere 2 Osprey were around the Middlebere nest platform, one of which looked like male Osprey 022 being nosey and taking a look to see who else was in the harbour. There were 2 White-tailed Eagle over Arne and 3 Marsh Harrier were at Swineham with a Barnacle Goose on the Swineham scrapes.

Mediterranean Gull – Daniel Nash

What a beautiful day. Loads of Brimstone Butterfly were on the wing and it definitely felt like there were more Chiffchaff around and the first wave of Blackcap had arrived in various woodlands. It’s seemed to have been a slow spring for Med Gulls in the harbour so far, but 329 over Lytchett Bay this evening in just over an hour suggested that there could be a bit of a late arrival. There were more new Osprey arrivals today with our old favourite ‘Beaky’ dropping down on to her favoured Middlebere nest platform mid-morning, and another was seen on another nest platform briefly on private land. ‘Beaky’ often spends around a week utilising the Middlebere platform before moving on to a destination unknown. There were White-tailed Eagle sightings over the Wareham Channel and Middlebere

This evening, we also published an exciting job advert which see’s us looking to build our team with a dynamic and varied job role on offer. If you think you have what it takes to help us build and deliver our growing range of public events, including our expanding public and school bird boat schedule, then you can read the full job advert HERE.

Osprey on Middlebere nest platform

Early April is such an exciting time. It has the feeling that the floodgates could open at any moment. There were a few hints of this today with a male Pied Flycatcher at Middlebere this afternoon and a Hoopoe just outside our recording area at Harman’s Cross. At the PCW Drain 2 Willow Warbler were singing, on Brownsea the first 2 Common Tern of the spring were settled with Sandwich Tern and at Swineham there was 1 House Martin, 5 Swallow and c30 Sand Martin. A hint of winter was had along the southern shore with a Barnacle Goose tagging along with a small Canada Goose flock near Newton Bay and a Great Northern Diver was off Jerry’s Point. In Lytchett Bay 5 Cattle Egret appeared late afternoon. Our Spring Safari Cruise this AM really delivered the goods with a low flying unringed Osprey flying straight over the boat and the White-tailed Eagle pair G466 and G463 sat on the edge of the saltmarsh at Swineham, giving what was probably our best ever views of these incredible and epic birds…..as you’ll see below of the photos taken by local birder Mark Wright. Just wow!

White-tailed Eagle pair male G463 (left) and female G466 (right) from our Spring Safari this AM 

Unringed Osprey from our Spring Safari this AM – Wareham Channel

Here we are, April 1st, normally a date we prime our selves for as it’s often female Osprey, CJ7’s normal return date. However, before April even started we’ve had nest dramas, love triangles and sky battles! Will April deliver any more surprises? It seems the nest situation has sorted it’s self out now with CJ7 present on and off the nest all day, with fish deliveries, nest building and mating attempts carried out. There’s been no sign of the un-ringed Osprey around the nest site, although we believe she was seen at Morden Bog this afternoon eating a fish. At Lytchett Fields a Spotted Redshank was feeding, 2 Willow Warbler were in the PCW Drain in Poole and 2 White-tailed Eagle were touring the harbour and south Purbeck’s being seen over Wareham, Wareham Channel, Corfe and Sandford. There were still 12 Pintail in Middlebere and c400 Black-tailed Godwit with 1 Greenshank. 

Unringed Osprey – Wareham Forest – Garry Hayman

Well March disappeared as quickly as it arrived! We’re now approaching April with not one, not two but THREE Ospreys interested in the Poole Harbour nest platform thanks to the safe and welcome return of CJ7 early this morning. It’s fantastic to see last year’s breeding female (and local celebrity) back on the nest, but it seems the intruding female is not going to give up without a fight – very interesting hours, days and weeks ahead! Elsewhere, the harbour received limited coverage with the weather providing little inspiration to venture out! A high tide count on Brownsea Lagoon featured 102 Avocet, 58 Bar-tailed Godwit, 176 Black-tailed Godwit, 18 Dunlin, 2 Spoonbill, 6 Mediterranean Gull and a surprising 27 Lesser Black-backed Gull exploiting the site’s shelter and Lytchett Fields enjoyed a Willow Warbler along Arable Field hedgerow.

Poole Harbour Osprey Nest Cam (left to right: 022, unringed female, CJ7)

Close up of CJ7 on the nest platform

When are we going to see some decent sunshine and warmth? I think we’ve all had enough of this blowy wet weather. It certainly hasn’t delivered too much, other than a lot of Sand Martin at Swineham with c600 there yesterday with 20 Swallow. There was one exciting encounter today when an Osprey and White-tailed Eagle had a minor dispute over the Wareham Channel this morning, a sight that we saw a few times last summer but seemed to have a bit more aggression tagged to it today. In this instance, it seemed the Osprey won! At the nest site today, there were actually 3 different Osprey interacting, possibly suggesting CJ7 had arrived back, although it turned out just to be a passing visitor which was soon  seen off. At Lytchett Fields a Little Ringed Plover was on the fields and 3 Wheatear were on site.

Osprey seeing of White-tailed Eagle – Wareham Channel – John Thorp

Another windy and wet day but with plenty of birdsong in the air nonetheless. A count at Holes Bay produced 660 Black-tailed Godwit, 2 Avocet, 3 Brent Geese, 79 Shelduck, 261 Teal, 59 Wigeon, 8 Mallard, 8 Shoveler, 5 Pintail and 25 Mute Swan. Activity on the Osprey nest has stepped up a gear, with both 022 and the unringed female bringing in nesting material and making at least 3 mating attempts today. There are still a few days to go until CJ7’s typical return date, which is usually in the first week of April, so it will be interesting to see what unfolds before then. It is very positive to have another female interested in breeding in Poole Harbour, regardless of whether CJ7 returns in the next week and the events that follow. Hopefully a sign of the exciting season to come!

Unringed female and 022 Mating Attempt 

022 on Nestcam

Firstly, we’d like to thank everyone for their kind words of support over the last 24 hours, it’s been incredibly heart-warming. The full extent of what’s happened is still unclear, but internally we’re working on plans to start assessing the initial impacts by organising an emergency WeBS (Wetland bird Survey) count this coming Sunday. This will assess current bird totals, but will also identify where birds are spending their time and if any birds have been physically impacted by the spill. This will provide an initial baseline of the situation, one that we hope doesn’t highlight too many issues. Although we’ll just have to wait and see.

Back to the more positive news, it was actually a great day for birds across the harbour including no less than 4 different Osprey present. When male 022 and an un-ringed individual were on the nest cam, 2 others were present out in the Wareham Channel. At lytchett Fields the harbours first Willow Warbler of the spring was logged and there were 3 Little Ringed Plover on Lytchett Fields. Also at the fields were a summer plumaged Water Pipit, 1 Spotted Redshank, 1 Red Kite and 2 White-tailed Eagles. Swineham was decent too with the drake Garganey still on the Stilt Pool, a Willow Warbler was near Ridge Wharf boat yard, a Pochard was on the pit and there were 45 Sand Martin and 4 Swallow over the pit. Our male Osprey 022 half-heartedly tried to start nest building but was distracted by what looked like 2 different individuals landing on his nest over the course of the day. CJ7 had better hurry up! There were 3 Spoonbill on the Brownsea Lagoon and at the harbour entrance 3 Brambling passed over with another feeding below the feeders at Arne. In Shell Bay 3 Eider were still just off Pilots Point and a Goshawk flew through Middlebere.

Road testing the new ‘zooooooom’ function on our new Osprey Nest Cam.

Male Osprey 022 looking ready!

Two different un-ringed Osprey on the nest cam during the course of the day?

The day kicked off in the most magical way, with the return of our breeding male Osprey 022!! He landed on the livestream nest just after 7 am this morning, much to everyone’s jubilation, indicating that he likely arrived some time yesterday! That would make him a full 17 days ahead of his return date from last year (April 10th), but this isn’t entirely unexpected: as a young male he has yet to settle into a regular pattern on migration and has consistently shown an advanced timings for a bird of his age. His successful breeding season here last year will likely have spurred him on to return early to defend his territory. The biggest surprise though came less than a minute later, when he was joined on the camera by a mystery un-ringed female! She’s probably a passage bird that followed him back to the nest, and given how early she has arrived herself may be on her way back to her own nest somewhere further north. It will be interesting to see whether she sticks around until CJ7 returns!

The pair departed the nest in quick succession around 9:30 am and headed towards the Wareham Channel, where our Spring Safari Cruise attendees were already stationed watching 2 White-tailed Eagle on the Keysworth shoreline. 022 began hunting in the mouth of the River Frome before heading towards Lytchett Bay, where he caught a Flounder and returned with it to the nest. The female followed a similar route, and was soon lost from view, but our boat-goers were already distracted by Marsh Harrier displaying over Gigger’s island. We then continued upstream to look into the Swineham Stilt Pools, where yesterday’s male Garganey was once again present amongst the Teal, Shoveler and Gadwall. It was around again in the evening, along with 3 Swallow over Swineham Point.

A quick look into Brownsea Lagoon before the end of the boat delivered good numbers of Grey Plover, Bar-tailed Godwit, Avocet and Sanderling. Other highlights were 30 Brent Geese in the Wareham Channel, an abundance of recently arrived Sandwich Tern commuting past us as we moved through the harbour, one of the Peregrine on the crane on Poole Quay as we departed, and a Great White Egret overhead shortly beforehand – presumably the same bird that was seen over Lytchett Bay not long later. Also present here were 2 Little Ringed Plover, 1 Spotted Redshank and 2 Sand Martin over the fields.

022 and un-ringed female Osprey land on Livestream nest for first time in 2023

022 photographed from Spring Safari Cruise – Wareham Channel – Alison Copland