Brittany Maxted

Ah I must have just missed you too @winspit1881.bsky.social! Great photo of the cormorants, they were much further out when I went past!

Very nice surprise on my lunchtime walk just outside Poole Town Centre today!! 🦅

Thank you Martin, that's such lovely feedback to hear!

Osprey cruises run by Birds of Poole Harbour charity win gold in Dorset Tourism Awards HUGE congratulations to the fantastic team behind the charity Birds of Poole Harbour whose Osprey Cruises have won GOLD in the 2024/25 Dorset Tourism Awards (Experience of the Year category)! The B…

GOLD! Brilliant result & so richly-deserved @harbourbirds.bsky.social 👏🏅🦅

If you haven't visited yet, you're missing out on one of the best wildlife experiences in the UK, let alone in Dorset!

#RaptorResearch #WildlifeConservation #Ecotourism

raptorpersecutionuk.org/2025/02/09/o...

🌟 Experience of the Year!! 🌟

So proud of our little team for this achievement! Yet more proof of the public support for #NatureRecovery and of its benefits to places and to people! 🦅

Come along to the premiere of my upcoming documentary ‘Conservation: the Next Generation’ in collab with @btobirds.bsky.social at the David Attenborough Building in Cambridge!

Followed by a Q&A.

Tickets are free here: www.bto.org/community/ev... 😊

Trailer here: youtu.be/Fop-NhoKm-c?...

We're offering a PhD place on Rewilding!

This PhD will study the wilder grazing at Purbeck Heaths ‘Super National Nature Reserve’, which is shifting towards the restoration of natural processes to create a more dynamic, complex landscape
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

8th Jan -deadline for fully funded PhD project examining individual variability in movement strategies of birds using tracking data. Please retweet.

A Birds of Poole Harbour Osprey Cruise full of members of the public out on the water in Poole Harbour with an Osprey hovering in the sky in the foreground.

6/6 #BOUsci24 #SESH6
Here Ospreys (and White-tailed Eagles) have had huge socioeconomic impacts, bringing income to local businesses, becoming engrained in local culture and providing mental health benefits to those watching the live webcams. Credit: @alisoncopland.bsky.social

A photograph of four Osprey chicks in a nest, ranging from a few days to two weeks old, with both parents each feeding fish to two chicks whilst a third spare fish lies in the centre of the nest.

5/6 #BOUsci24 #SESH6
CJ7 eventually paired up with translocated male 022 and in 2022 they became the first breeding ospreys in Southern England since 1847. In just three years of breeding they have reared 9 chicks, demonstrating the high availability of food in the local landscape.

A photograph of two-year-old female Osprey CJ7 attempting to land on a wooden perch on a saltmarsh alongside several juvenile Ospreys a few days after their release in 2017.

4/6 #BOUsci24 #SESH6
One crucial individual to the emerging population has been a female from Rutland Water called CJ7, who was attracted to settle in the area merely by the presence of released young, long before any potential adult mates were resident in the area. Credit: @winspit1881.bsky.social

A map of England and Wales showing the long-range dispersal of translocated and wild female Osprey from Poole Harbour to Wales and Rutland, short-range dispersal of males and immigration of two females from Rutland.

3/6 #BOUsci24 #SESH6
Seven individuals (and one wild fledged young) have so far returned to the UK, demonstrating the expected pattern of emigration by females bolstering neighbouring populations, and strong philopatry amongst males building the emerging local population.

A group of young Opsreys (large brown and white birds of prey) feeding on provided trout on the mesh roofs of two sets of translocation release pens.

2/6 #BOUsci24 #SESH6
Translocations have been implemented in many places to speed up range recovery, including in Poole Harbour, UK between 2017-2021 when a total of 38 juveniles sourced from the healthy Scottish population were released by @harbourbirds.bsky.social & Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation.

A map showing Europe with orange covering North-eastern regions and a few small areas elsewhere, indicating the much reduced range of Ospreys due to persecution.

1/6 #BOUsci24 #SESH6
The Osprey suffered extensive historical declines throughout Western Europe due to human persecution, and has been slow to recolonise following greater protections due to high rates of natal philopatry and conspecific attraction.

A list of acknowledgement to the organisations and individuals who have helped with this work including: Natural England, National Trust, RSPB, Dorset Bird Club, Paradise Park, Durrell, Wildwood, and Kent Wildlife Trust.

6/6 #BOUsci24 #POSTER2
If proven successful, this methodology could be used to not only to accelerate further range recovery elsewhere but also to reinforce declining populations around the British Isles whilst helping to improve their genetic diversity.

A photo of a grassy coastal slope with strip lynchets on the Purbeck coast where released Chough will hopefully be seen in the future.

5/6 #BOUsci24 #POSTER2
So @harbourbirds.bsky.social supported by the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation & Natural England propose a reintroduction to Purbeck using a new ‘wild-take’ translocation methodology, which favours genetic diversity, natural behaviours, and minimises costs & time requirements.

A map showing a modelled expansion of the Cornish Chough population towards Dorset over more than 40 years demonstrating the slow nature of the process.

4/6 #BOUsci24 #POSTER2
However spatial expansion of the Cornish population is slowed by low rates of dispersal and a lack of contiguous high-quality habitat along the South coast. It’s therefore projected to take between 34-80+ years for natural recolonisation to occur.

A graph showing an exponential increase in the Cornish Chough population from 1 pair and their chicks in 2002, to 25 pairs and more than 60 chicks in 2022.

3/6 #BOUsci24 #POSTER2
The closest extant population in Cornwall has been growing exponentially since a chance recolonisation event in 2001, and could act as a potential source of dispersing individuals for recolonisation of the Dorset coast in the future.

A map showing 10,703 hectares of potential Chough foraging habitat in South Purbeck and Portland, including 2,550 hectares of optimal foraging habitat (where the sward height is below 5 centimetres) mostly concentrated close to the Purbeck coast.

2/6 #BOUsci24 #POSTER2
Chough are now a protected species, and a return to more traditional management practices on the Purbeck coast by landowners such as the National Trust and their tenant farmers means that there is now extensive Chough foraging habitat available in Dorset once again.