A HEARTWARMING has video captured the successful breeding of osprey’s throughout the year.
Birds of Poole Harbour is a non-profit organisation dedicated to boosting the profile of bird conservation, observation and education across the harbour.
A reintroduction programme was announced in 2017 which saw four chicks hatch on live camera.
Female bird CJ7 and male 022 are the only breeding pair of ospreys on England's south coast and the first pair in more than 100 years.
In 2018, the conservation charity lost six of its birds in less than a week following a suspected nutritional thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency, while one was found drowned after becoming entangled in thick algae.
The reintroduction project set up by Birds of Poole Harbour and the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation involves the transfer of 60 juvenile ospreys from Scottish nests into the Poole Harbour area.
In May earlier this year, after three successful hatchings, a fourth osprey egg was found and hatched, boosting the improvement of the programme.
A spokesperson for the charity said: “The summer of 2024 saw an amazing four young being raised, ringed 5R1, 5R2, 5R3 and 5H6.
“This was a historic moment and to date, seems to have been the only Osprey nest in the country that year that raised four youngsters. There were several exciting elements to this story.
“Firstly, that when the chicks were ringed it was logged that all four youngsters were male, which is a great situation for the local area, as it’s the males that tend to return to their ‘local’ areas in future years to set up territories of their own.
“Secondly, the whole season from arrival to departure was captured on our HD livestream camera, and was viewed live by thousands of viewers over the course of the season.
“Now that we’re well into the start of winter it can be easy to forget just how special the 2024 season was, so, to celebrate, we’ve created a five episode series of Osprey Season 2024 which highlights every intimate moment from start to finish and will allow you all to re-live the best moments from the nest this summer.”
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