Former love‑triangle osprey lays fourth egg

An osprey at the centre of a love triangle last year has laid a fourth egg.

Female CJ7 was filmed with her clutch of four eggs for the third year in a row on her nest near Wareham, Dorset shortly before 07:00 GMT.

The osprey returned to the nest in a walled garden on 25 March, male 022 arrived the following day and the pair became settled. Things were different a year ago when CJ7 arrived to find 022 had shared the nest with another female.

The pair have nested at Careys Secret Garden since 2022. They hatched four chicks in 2024 and another four in 2025 they are the first ospreys to breed on England's south coast in 180 years.

Birds of Poole Harbour, a charity leading the area's osprey breeding project said four eggs for a third year in a row was "quite a rare occurrence in ospreys, but great news for the recovering population here on the south coast."

The pair have so far successfully bred at the nest site for three consecutive years, rearing three young in 2023, four in 2024 and a further four in 2025.

This year's eggs should start to hatch towards the end of May.

Birds of Poole Harbour and Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation began the reintroduction programme in 2017 with the aim of establishing a breeding population on the south coast.

Up to 14 osprey chicks are re-located from Scotland and released in the Poole Harbour area each year.

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