Poole ospreys being streamed on YouTube

HUNDREDS of excited birdwatchers have been tuning into a live webcam ever since the plucky two-year-old male returned to Poole Harbour from overwintering in Africa. He made a beeline for a man-made nest inhabited by a more mature female who has been waiting two years for a male to breed with. Although experts believe the plucky male is not at the age of sexual maturity, the early signs of him successfully breeding with the female look good. The pair have been observed by YouTube watchers getting amorous and simulating mating rituals. If they do breed then it will be the first time in 200 years an osprey has hatched in southern Britain. The majestic bird of prey is extinct in many parts of western Europe due to human persecution and egg collecting. There are sustainable populations of them in northern Scotland. Ornithologists in Poole realised several years ago those birds stop off in the harbour to feed while they migrate south to Africa to over-winter. So in 2017 they set up some raised platform nests and released 33 chicks taken from nests in Scotland in the hope they would make Poole their UK home. One regular visitor has been the…
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