Poole Osprey Project
How do you make an osprey believe that Poole Harbour is home?
Ospreys are very faithful birds: they can breed with the same partner for many years and form tight bonds. Despite migrating independently to West Africa each winter, pairs can sometimes arrive back at their nest in spring just days or hours apart! However, even this pair bond is often not as strong as that between an osprey and
Leaflet & Flyer
Distribution
Osprey on Middlebere nest © Mark Wright
its nest. Occasionally, if a more suitable partner comes along they’ll allow their mate to be booted off the nest…
Males in particular are very faithful to nests, even the ones they were born in, and this is often the first place they return to look for breeding opportunities themselves. This phenomenon is called ‘imprinting’, and it is what stops ospreys from Scotland, Wales and northern England moving hundreds of kilometres to breed in Poole Harbour.
One thing that does effectively attract breeders into new areas, however, is other ospreys. Well, back in 2010 local groups tried to provide the next best thing… polystyrene Ospreys! That’s right, a pair of decoy ospreys of the foam variety were placed on an artificial nest at RSPB Arne, in the hope of convincing real birds to stop off.
Alas, none were fooled, and after six years it was realised we had to think much bigger! So in came the proposal to translocate real ospreys from Scotland. The aim of translocation is to move chicks at a young enough age that when their time comes to imprint, they will already be in Poole Harbour, and so this is where they will choose to return.
That’s the theory, but what’s it like in practice? Read our column in future issues to learn how we collect, raise, and monitor our chicks, and find out how the project has gone so far!
Twitter: @harbourospreys / @harbourbirds
Facebook: Poole Harbour Osprey Project / Birds of Poole Harbour
Email:
osprey@birdsofpooleharbour.co.uk 48
Would you like your leaflets or flyers delivered door to door with this magazine by a reliable delivery team?
Very competitive rates!
For more details, please call
01202 657317
harriet@broadstonelink.co.uk www.broadstonelink.co.uk
To advertise, please contact 01202 657317 or email
info@broadstonelink.co.uk
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72
