\n The ornithologically enthused spectators were amazed after a male white-tailed eagle chased a female osprey over a catch.\n<\/p>\n
\n After a pursuit, the osprey relinquished the grey mullet it had caught before the eagle swooped down and stole the catch in an act of kleptoparasitism.\n<\/p>\n
\n (Image: Mike Kirby) The event was captured by Mike Kirby in Poole Harbour while out on a boat tour with Birds of Poole Harbour on August 15.\n<\/p>\n
\n He said: \u201cDorset is an absolutely amazing county for wildlife that\u2019s getting better all the time.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cShe (the osprey) was out catching fish, she caught a mullet, and the male white-tailed eagle was waiting and hiding somewhere and then made a beeline for her and started chasing her.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt came over towards the people, to everyone on the boat.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe got an absolutely amazing view in beautiful conditions.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n The thief was identified as G463, one of the birds from the white-tailed eagle reintroduction project.\n<\/p>\n
\n It is one of a breeding pair that have settled in Poole Harbour and is known for having only one foot, having lost the other a few years back, in an unknown incident.\n<\/p>\n
\n The eagle can be seen with a radio tracker on it back, allowing for the bird to be tracked and monitored.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n White-tailed eagles are the largest bird of prey found in the UK, with fully grown adults having a wingspan of more than two metres, while ospreys are much smaller in size, with an average wingspan between 145cm to 170cm.\n<\/p>\n
\n There are an estimated 200 to 250 breeding pairs of ospreys in the UK, according to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.\n<\/p>\n
\n The white-tailed eagle makes off with the catch\u00a0(Image: Mike Kirby) \u201cWhen you see the two together, it\u2019s just incredible,\u201d Mike added.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt\u2019s just an amazing spectacle, the sort of wildlife spectacle that people might have to go to a safari or wherever to see.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cBut we\u2019ve got it right here.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n He added: \u201cWe\u2019ve got it right on our doorstep.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Birds of Poole Harbour is a registered charity which aims to raise the profile of bird conservation, preservation and observation in and around the Poole Harbour and run boat trips all year round, including special osprey cruises.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The ornithologically enthused spectators were amazed after a male white-tailed eagle chased a female osprey over a catch.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3847],"tags":[70,16,15,1717],"class_list":{"0":"post-382268","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom","11":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115111735119199818","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}