I was down to act as a spotter on the Birds of Poole Harbour Osprey cruise focusing on the Wareham Channel in the morning. We left on time at 09:00 for the three hour cruise & headed off for the Wareham Channel with Mark Constantine, Paul Morton & Sam Ryde on board running the commentary. We also had Imogen Lloyd from the Isle of Wight Forestry England Sea-eagle Project on board as a guest visitor. We were quickly heading for Gold Point where Sam had picked out a perched White-tailed Sea-eagle on the beach. It was remarkably unfazed as the bird boat approached. However, this is something I had seen ten days earlier when the resident female was seen sitting on a 'No Landing' sign on the Wareham Channel side of the Arne Peninsula: on a cruise when I hadn't taken my camera.
After filling our boots with the White-tailed Sea-eagle, Paul remembered it was an Osprey cruise & we departed for the Wareham Channel. It's tricky to be sure how many Ospreys were seen during the day, but I wouldn't be surprised if the total reached around ten individuals. This included a mixture from the local family, as well as, arrivals heading South from other UK pairs. We started with two Ospreys distantly perched in a bare tree on Arne, but quickly saw the first fishing Osprey. This was followed by Ospreys being on view somewhere in the Wareham Channel throughout the morning.
As a spotter, my job is to help the passengers see the Ospreys, Sandwich Terns and other Birds & Seals that were feeding in the Wareham Channel, as well as, to provide useful tips on how to identify them. Often this means that once I'm happy that all of the passengers around me are looking at the present species of interest, I switch to scanning in other directions to look for other interesting species. But occasionally, I stopped scanning and took a few photographs.
We spent the morning cruising up & down the Wareham Channel. As well as the many Osprey sightings, we enjoyed flight views of the White-tailed Sea-eagle pair fly along the Channel and land in a waterside tree. Eventually, it was getting close to mid-day & we headed for Poole quayside. Everybody seemed to have had a good morning. For once the weather had been kind with warm, still & sunny weather and jackets and fleeces were taken off in the sun. As we disembarked, Mark & Paul asked if I wanted to go back out on the afternoon boat, as Mark had some pressing work commitments that stopped him going back out. It only took a few seconds to say yes. I headed off to get some lunch before returning in time to join Liz Woodford as a spotter on the 14:00 boat.
Paul & Sam led on the commentary on the afternoon cruise as we motored towards the Wareham Channel. Fairly quickly, Sam decided to get Paul to run through the new Birds of Poole Harbour exercises that they had been practising. Fortunately, the passengers were sensible enough to not all stand up & join in.
With the exercises over, Paul & Sam's commentary switched to the importance of Poole Harbour and the successful reintroduction of Ospreys into Dorset. Later, Imogen provided more detailed about the Isle of Wight White-tailed Sea-eagle reintroduction project. This was followed during the afternoon with views of multiple Ospreys and more distant views of the White-tailed Sea-eagles chasing Ospreys with fish over the top of the Arne reserve. Unfortunately, these aerial dog-fights weren't close on this occasion.
It would be interesting to know how these numbers in the Wareham Channel compare to a decade ago before the first Osprey releases. Certainly, Ospreys were regular in this area in the Autumn, but there weren't the frequent bird boats to allow a direct comparison of non-local Ospreys over the years. However, it does feel that the presence of the local pair have helped to attract & hold migrating Ospreys these days.
On both cruises, we saw Common Seals & Grey Seals. This Common Seal was an absolute beauty as it enjoyed a relaxing rest on the mud bank close to the main channel leading into the River Frome. It was unfazed by our boat, albeit we weren't as close as this photo suggests.
In the end, we were late back to the quayside as Paul decided to head back up the Wareham Channel towards the end of the cruise for another Osprey. It had been another superb Osprey cruise.
If you haven't been on one of the Birds of Poole Harbour cruises, then I can thoroughly recommend them. But it is best to overdress as it is generally colder on the water than on the quayside. It was a pleasant chance to be able to get down to T-shirts in the glorious afternoon weather.
The final thought was the Birds of Poole Harbour team would have made a profit from these two cruises. They reinvest this money into inviting schoolkids from across the towns around the local area on a cruise, where they focus on educating the schoolkids about the importance of Poole Harbour and protecting it and its wildlife. This is a free event for the schools, but hopefully it will help excite a passion for Poole Harbour and its wildlife in the next generation.
