A translocation project at Poole Harbour = more Ospreys!! Brill!!

Interesting bit of news I picked up this week.

A consortium of The Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation, Birds of Poole Harbour, and a Poole based business Wildlife Windows, have been granted a licence to carry out a 5-year project to attract Ospreys to breed in Poole harbour.

The relevant licence allows the consortia to operate in the same way as happened at Rutland Water, with six-week old chicks being translocated from Scotland to Poole Harbour and put in an environment that will suit them, and encourage them to grow recognising Poole harbour as their natal home. 

This project is intended to speed up the natural spread of breeding Ospreys, unlike the ad hoc project across South and middle Derbyshire, Notts and Staffs where it was hoped that with enough bird nests, Ospreys would find a nesting platform of their own accord.

I still hope that one day, we will have Midland Ospreys breeding, which would fill the hole in the Bermuda triangle of Scotland and the Lake District, Rutland Water, the Dyfi estuary (Wales), plus Poole Harbour

We all have our own unique experiences of encounters with birds, and I had a couple this week.

Mary and I were on the way to Newark on Wednesday, and were delayed for a lengthy stretch of road works. As we sat in the car (and I now have a car with a silent engine when the car stops!) we could see and hear a male Yellowhammer singing away atop a roadside bush. So calming!

Then on Thursday I was waiting at some traffic lights near West Bridgford when a Woodpigeon landed on the roof of a large freight lorry in front of me. As we started to move, I was wondering how far he would hitch a ride, and only when we turned right for the A52 did he decide that he wanted the A606, so he signalled left and headed off south to see his friends at Rutland water!!

Ed: What a vivid imagination.

But the one that takes me back to my days with Bass, was when I was in a MacDonald’s (So??) in Princes St, Edinburgh, upstairs and by the window watching the traffic. At intervals, tankers with beer ingredients passed by en route from The Maltings to the Tenants Brewery, and clinging to the top of the tankers for dear life, were 3 or 4 pigeons (probably feral). When and if a lorry stopped in my eye-line, the pigeons would frantically peck at the wheat or malt or whatever that had stuck to the tanker lid over the loading hole, regripping the tanker when the driver moved forward. I doubt whether anyone in MacDonald’s knew what I was laughing at.

Thursday 27^th July. 2 or 3 years ago Chris and I went to Frampton at round about this date, and had an absolute bonanza day with some cracking waders, Glossy Ibis, Yellow Wagtails, so I thought I would see if history was going to repeat itself… and to a degree it did. 

Unfortunately, some site maintenance with strimmers, drove away the Wood Sandpiper and I never did find the alleged Curlew Sand, but I did connect with Little Stint and with a bit of help from a fellow birder, I was able to tick off an excellent Pectoral Sandpiper, the first time I have seen one for 7 years.

The other surprise was to see the highest sea level that I had ever seen at Frampton. Checking my tide timetable when I got home showed that it was indeed the big one of July.

So, end of July, and I’m on 193 to date, or 96.5% or 7 to find, and I’ve still got 5 months to go. 

Including the Shearwater Cruise out of Bridlington in September, it should be a piece of cake!

Ed: Really?

Only 2 replies so far to my request for your earliest bird memory??? Where are you all??

Nostalgia time - which bird was YOUR inspiration?

So if you are down to get a mail shot each time I post a blog, this mid-week issue will come as a surprise!!

But I have a cunning plan.

A couple of weeks ago, I had the inspiration to ask the family (Mary, Sarah and Michael…..oh and me) what our earliest ever memory was.  After some deliberation, we came up with the following:-

Mary - she remembered when she was about 3, lying in bed in between her sleeping Mum and an Aunty, and she cut her Mum’s hair. She does not recall the consequences.

Sarah recalled when she was about 3, she tripped backwards and burnt her legs in the coal fire. But her vivid memory was the chocolates given to her by the nurse in hospital.

Michael remembers sitting on a sideboard alongside his sister, for a family photo, and having to wear a smart shirt which constantly make him itch.

Mine? I was about 4 or 5, and lived at Effiingham Rd in Bristol. I recall men coming along the road with a sparking oxyacetylene torch, and cutting off all the iron railings to use for the war.

This interesting little exercise gave me the idea to ask YOU to do some recollecting!!!

It would be interesting to know which bird was the bird that got you into birding. Which one gave you the taste and the inspiration, where did you see it and when.

If you add a comment to this post, I can collate the replies and see what we come up with.

All you have to do is click on “no comment” and put in whatever you want to write. You can devise an anonymous name (like Slim Bridge has), or use your own name as you prefer. (IF you are an overseas follower, please add your country, city etc.)

I HOPE YOU WILL PARTICIPATE – IT WILL BE INTERESTING TO KNOW WHAT GOT US INTO BIRDING

To give you some inspiration, I can recall 3 birds which got me started, but I don’t know which was the first.

I watched a pair of Bullfinches stripping the buds on a miniature cherry bush, whilst sitting at home with sciatica.

A work colleague, Ken Smith (who still goes birding at Beeley Moor near Chatsworth), showed me a Spotted Flycatcher working off a handrail alongside our offices in Darley Dale.    He also took me to a building contract for a new school at Matlock, to see the Waxwings.

A typical internet benefit. Highfields School website states that the Matlock school was built in 1982…ergo, I started birding in c1982.

I await your entries on my blog with interest.