Today was the day we’ve all been waiting for. At 5:32am one of our harbour nest platform trail cameras picked up an image of a single Osprey. In the next series of photos two Osprey were present! We could see they both had blue rings, but the images were too blurry to confirm the numbers. One was almost certainly going to be CJ7 but who was the new comer?

When we receive the photos from the trail cams they don’t arrive as HD quality images and we have to request them, meaning an agonising wait until the next transmission of photos come through. Anyway, at 9am the HD versions of the photos came through and BOOOOM! It was one of our 2019 translocated males 022……FANTASTIC!

What was even better was that female Osprey CJ7 found him almost immediately and the two then spent the whole day together touring the harbour, visiting several sites and a couple of different nest platforms. The best moment was mid-morning when the pair made an appearance on the live nest cam, allowing all viewers at home to enjoy the arrival.

Then, this evening we were all treated to ‘a show’ with CJ7 and 022 present at the main nest site and mating frequently. We’ll be writing a fuller insight into what this means but for now, we’re just over the moon that we have a male back in the harbour that’s paired with CJ7 and they seem to be getting on!

For now, here’s a series of exciting photos that summed up todays events….

Male Osprey 022 arriving this morning at 05:32

Female Osprey CJ7 joining male Osprey 022 this morning at 06:39

Male Osprey 022 visiting the nest cam for the first time

Male Osprey 022 showing off to CJ7

A ‘busy’ evening for the new couple