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Brittany Maxted

@brittanymaxted.bsky.social
596 followers 365 following 16 posts

Species Recovery Coordinator @harbourbirds.bsky.social & PhD researcher at @bournemouthuni.bsky.social studying Osprey population dynamics

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Brittany Maxted @brittanymaxted.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Thank you so much Ruth!! And thank you for all the excellent advice you gave me from the very beginning, it really has helped me have that staying power to see it through to the end! 😊
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Brittany Maxted @brittanymaxted.bsky.social · 18/02/2025
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!
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Brittany Maxted @brittanymaxted.bsky.social · 17/02/2025
Very nice surprise on my lunchtime walk just outside Poole Town Centre today!! 🦅
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Brittany Maxted @brittanymaxted.bsky.social · 12/02/2025
Thank you Martin, that's such lovely feedback to hear!
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Raptor Persecution UK @raptorpersuk.bsky.social · 09/02/2025
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...
raptorpersecutionuk.org
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…
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Brittany Maxted @brittanymaxted.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
🌟 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! 🦅
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Mya Bambrick @myabambrick.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
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?...
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James Bullock @jmbecologist.bsky.social · 28/11/2024
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...
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Aldina Franco @aldinafranco.bsky.social · 02/01/2025
8th Jan -deadline for fully funded PhD project examining individual variability in movement strategies of birds using tracking data. Please retweet.
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Brittany Maxted @brittanymaxted.bsky.social · 13/11/2024
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 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.
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Brittany Maxted @brittanymaxted.bsky.social · 13/11/2024
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 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.
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Brittany Maxted @brittanymaxted.bsky.social · 13/11/2024
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 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.
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Brittany Maxted @brittanymaxted.bsky.social · 13/11/2024
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 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.
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Brittany Maxted @brittanymaxted.bsky.social · 13/11/2024
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 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.
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Brittany Maxted @brittanymaxted.bsky.social · 13/11/2024
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 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.
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Brittany Maxted @brittanymaxted.bsky.social · 13/11/2024
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 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.
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Brittany Maxted @brittanymaxted.bsky.social · 13/11/2024
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 photo of a grassy coastal slope with strip lynchets on the Purbeck coast where released Chough will hopefully be seen in the future.
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Brittany Maxted @brittanymaxted.bsky.social · 13/11/2024
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 map showing a modelled expansion of the Cornish Chough population towards Dorset over more than 40 years demonstrating the slow nature of the process.
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Brittany Maxted @brittanymaxted.bsky.social · 13/11/2024
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 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.
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Brittany Maxted @brittanymaxted.bsky.social · 13/11/2024
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.
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.
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