osprey
Poole Harbour translocation
The Poole Harbour Osprey Project began in 2017 as a multi-year project in partnership with Birds of Poole Harbour to translocate 60 Scottish Osprey chicks and release them at a confidential location in the Poole Harbour area. The project was licensed under Scottish Natural Heritage and Natural England. The Ospreys have been incredibly successful since, with multiple pairs now breeding in the area, and in 2025 the first chick hatched from a translocated individual has paired up and reared chicks of her own!
Why Poole Harbour?
Permission for the project to go ahead was granted by Natural England after substantial evidence that Poole Harbour would be a suitable habitat for Ospreys to breed, as well as being an ideal location for a reintroduction project because of the high numbers of Ospreys passing through the harbour on migration. Prior to the project, attempts were made to encourage Ospreys to stay in the area over 8 years through the installation of several nesting platforms around the harbour. Despite interest in the area and an increasing population passing through, there had still been no known nesting attempts on the South Coast, so reintroduction was the best way forward.
Images: John Wright
2017
The first translocated Ospreys arrive in Poole Harbour. Female CJ7, who hatched at Rutland Water, also became resident over the breeding season, but without a male.
2019
Poole harbour translocated male LS7 returned for the first time and bonded with CJ7, it was looking hopeful that breeding might occur in the following year but unfortunately LS7 never made it back after his next migration.
2021 -2022
Female Osprey CJ7 pairs up with male 022 who was translocated to Poole Harbour and released in 2019, they bonded in 2021 and laid three eggs in 2022, two chicks hatched and one made it safely on migration.
2025
CJ7 and 022 remain a successful breeding pair in Poole Harbour and for the first time a second pair of Osprey have bred successfully in southern England!