Poole Osprey Project
The history of ospreys in Britain is a somewhat tumultuous and tragic tale.
Centuries ago, an osprey soaring over Brownsea Island or Holes Bay would not have been an uncommon sight. We know they
were once widespread here thanks to historical records in which they are fondly referred to by the old Dorset name ‘Mullet Hawk’, taken from that of their favoured prey species. Yet the osprey is not limited in its choice of food: they’ll eat just about any fi sh they can get their talons on! And it’s this opportunistic attitude which became a very key factor in their demise.
During middle-age Catholic Britain, meat
was forbidden on Fridays and hence fi sh (not being considered meat) was a very important food, and every great house or monastery would have teaming ponds: a very appealing hunting ground for hungry ospreys. Their tendency to pillage these vital stocks lead to great confl icts, resulting in
enormous numbers being shot and eventually signifi cant population decline.
And the rarer ospreys became, the more valuable they became... Surviving individuals were killed avidly by trophy hunters and their beautiful eggs stolen for private collections. Unfortunately this persecution, combined with habitat destruction, drove them to extinction as a British breeding species by 1916. It was 40 years before ospreys bred once more, and only a century on are we now seeing substantial recovery.
This story was mirrored in other countries throughout Europe, and to this day the ospreys’ continental distribution remains patchy, leaving them vulnerable to future extinctions. These are the motivations behind the Poole Harbour Osprey Project. Indeed, one of our primary aims is to restore the osprey to its rightful place locally, but on a much wider scale we aim to enable the mixing of the British and European populations by creating a ‘stepping-stone’ population on the south coast of England. And there, long may the Mullet Hawk remain.
Twitter: @harbourospreys / @harbourbirds
Facebook: Poole Harbour Osprey Project / Birds of Poole Harbour
Email:
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Osprey © Paul Morton
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