Great and sad news today; first the good news. The harbours first Osprey of the spring was seen and photographed in Poole Harbour today with an un-ringed bird seen hunting briefly in Lytchett Bay before being chased off by Herring Gulls. This will hopefully now be the floodgates well and truly opened with many more passing through over late March and April. Now some sad news; we recently received information that the rings of one of our Osprey chicks from last years translocation had been found down in the Gambia. Other than that we didn’t know much more. Well, this evening we were sent photos of LS6’s corpse which had been found in the Kartong region of the Gambia. The local people that found LS6’s body couldn’t see any signs or cause of death so it could have been one of one hundred reasons ranging from Eagle Owl attack to exhaustion. The fact it had made it all the way down to the Gambia showed it was strong enough to make its first migration south, and to an extremely popular area for over-wintering Osprey too. It’s just sad it couldn’t see the winter through. However, we’ve now had information back relating to three of our eight chicks (LS3, LS6 and LS7) from this first winter alone, which despite the outcome for one of them, is an unbelievable return rate. Lets hope LS3 and LS7 continue to thrive down in Western Senegal. Elsewhere around the harbour a new immature Hen Harrier was seen bombing around the west Wareham Channel area with the other juv male seen too. Off Shipstal there were 3 Great Northern Diver still and there had been a mini fall of Chiffchaff around the harbour with birds singing along Soldiers Road, Hartland and at Arne. 

Osprey – Lytchett Bay – Ian Ballam

Osprey – Lytchett Bay – Ian Ballam

Osprey chick LS6’s corpse found down in the Gambia recently