چهارمین جوجه ماهی‌خورک در آشیانه Poole Harbour شکافته شد

CJ7 and 022, the south of England’s only breeding ospreys, have hatched their fourth and final egg of the season near Poole Harbour.

Webcams at the site showed all four chicks on Friday morning as the female, CJ7, fed them fish. She and the male, 022, laid four eggs in April at their nest at Careys Secret Garden, marking the third year in a row the pair has produced a clutch of that size.

Birds of Poole Harbour, the charity involved in the area’s osprey recovery work, said laying four eggs was "quite a rare occurrence in ospreys."

The latest hatch continues a successful run for CJ7 and 022, which have bred at the same site for three consecutive years. The pair reared three young in 2023, four in 2024 and another four in 2025.

The birds are significant because they were the first ospreys to breed on England’s south coast in 180 years. Their return followed a reintroduction programme launched in 2017 by Birds of Poole Harbour and the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation, which aimed to establish a breeding population along the south coast.

As part of that effort, up to 14 osprey chicks were moved from Scotland and released in the Poole Harbour area each year until 2021.

The young birds usually leave Dorset between August and September and migrate to West Africa, where they remain for several years before returning when they are ready to breed. For now, the focus at the Poole Harbour nest is on whether all four newly hatched chicks continue to develop successfully through the season.