Early in September, Rod’s niece came to visit primarily to go on the final morning Osprey cruise of the year with Birds of Poole Harbour. The Osprey breeding programme has been doing well and a pair of Ospreys bred in the harbour for the first time for 200 years, they successfully produced two chicks who had just fledged but sadly one was predated by a juvenile Goshawk, they rescued the chick as the parent managed to fend off the Goshawk, but sadly the chick didn’t survive. That’s nature and it’s a bonus to know there are Goshawks in Dorset! The second chick fledged and hopefully it will come back to the harbour in around three years time to breed.
The Osprey cruises are on at a time when migration of the birds is in full swing, besides the Ospreys who live in Poole harbour many birds moving from different locations in the UK stay for a while fishing before moving on to overwinter mainly in West Africa.
So Elaine, Rod and myself went out from Poole Quay with a number of bird watchers at 9.30am and would spend over two hours heading slowly up the Wareham Channel and back. The tide was low and the boat negotiated the channel as far as it was able and indeed it was stuck for a while before the tide rose again, only for a short while, which was a shame!
The weather was a little overcast but dry and not too windy so it was a pleasant trip. The boat had a number of birds of Poole Harbour experts on board and we had a commentary on the Ospreys and all of the birds and wildlife we saw on the way and we weren’t disappointed. There was plenty of bird movement and as you can see in the images below quite a variety. We did of course see Ospreys, there were possibly three around but only one came fairly close to the boat but a chance for some pictures. We did see a distant Osprey with a fish.
We were also lucky to see two Common Seals on the sandbank slowly getting covered with water, they certainly weren’t phased by the boat being there.
Also at last we did see a White Tailed Eagle albeit at a long distance away, the camera just managed to capture the bird so hopefully one day we will see one close.
It was a great morning and I wouldn’t hesitate going out again.
We did visit Lytchett Fields Nature reserve on the way home, there was a few birds about but it was still very dry, I think it may be a promising place to visit when the drought is over and in the winter .
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