Project to bring back the Osprey to south of England will start in Poole

The five-year Osprey translocation project will be led by the charity Birds of Poole Harbour, Poole-based business Wildlife Windows, and Scottish charity the Roy Dennis.

Ospreys, which feed exclusively on fish, historically bred across the whole of Britain and north-western Europe, but populations drastically declined in the Middle Ages and became extinct in England by the mid-1800s.

The bird used to have the local nickname ‘Mullet Hawk’ when it bred in the south of England.

They are annual visitors to Poole Harbour as they pass through on their northward and southward migrations between their breeding grounds in Scotland and central England and their over-wintering grounds in West Africa.

Over the last eight years, efforts within Poole Harbour have been made by the RSPB, National Trust, Natural England, The Forestry Commission and private landowners to try and attract Osprey to stay and breed by erecting artificial nesting platforms in the hope that the birds will adopt them as their own nests.

Osprey are semi-colonial and often choose to nest in areas where other Osprey are nesting and, in 2009, the RSPB went as far as placing decoy birds, supplied by Roy Dennis, on one of their nesting platforms on their Arne Reserve.

Although there has been some interest by Osprey in these nesting platforms over that eight-year period, none have decided to stay and breed and it is now thought a translocation project is the next logical step to try and encourage the birds to settle on the south coast.

The Poole Harbour project will involve the licensed collection of five six-week-old chicks from sustainable populations in Scotland.

Once collected, the chicks will be brought down to Poole Harbour and held in large holding pens at a confidential site for two to three weeks to acclimatise to their new home and prepare for their first flights.

Once released, they will be provided with fresh fish on artificial nests, to replicate normal Osprey behaviour, and so are likely to remain around Poole Harbour for a further six weeks (the normal post-fledging period) before beginning their long migration to West Africa. During this six week period the birds will imprint on the area and adopt Poole as their new home.

Paul Morton, of Birds of Poole Harbour, said: “We hope that this is a project that the whole community will get behind. In other parts of the country, there is great excitement when the Ospreys return each spring, and, in years to come, it would be marvellous if there was a similar feeling in Poole and along other parts of the south coast.”