Returning ospreys lay first egg of the season

A pair of ospreys nesting near Poole Harbour in Dorset are incubating their first egg of the season.

Charity Birds of Poole Harbour said the egg appeared at 12:56 GMT on Tuesday.

Female CJ17 was captured on webcam at the nest site near Wareham with the speckled egg between her feet.

CJ7 and 022 - the first ospreys to breed on England's south coast in 180 years - have nested at Careys Secret Garden since 2022.

They have bred for three consecutive years, rearing three young in 2023, four in 2024 and a further four in 2025.

The pair returned to their nest on 26 and 27 March.

Birds of Poole Harbour and Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation began a reintroduction programme in 2017 with the long-term aim of establishing a breeding population.

Each year, up to 14 osprey chicks from Scotland are re-located, reared and released in the Poole Harbour area.

The juveniles usually leave the harbour between in August or September, travelling to their wintering grounds in West Africa, where they remain for a few years before returning to Dorset when they are ready to breed.