As preliminary sightings go, my first encounter with an Osprey may hardly have been bettered. It happened on the RSPB’s Minsmere reserve in Might 1969. I used to be working as a voluntary warden on the reserve on the time, and on the day of my sighting I used to be serving to to restore a bridge over a dyke to Island Mere. It was a non-visitor day, so there was hardly anybody about. All of the sudden, all of the Black-headed Gulls rose in a panic, and a second later I noticed the trigger for his or her alarm: a big chook of prey was hovering overhead. I could have by no means seen one earlier than, however this chook was unmistakably an Osprey. It circled round just a few instances, then plunged into the mere with a spectacular splash, rising closely a second later with a big fish in its talons. Improbable!
Seventy-five years in the past there have been no breeding Ospreys in Britain: as we speak the inhabitants is near 400 pairs. Scotland stays the stronghold, however there’s an growing variety of pairs in Wales and England
In these distant days Ospreys have been real rarities, particularly as passage birds in Suffolk. After an extended absence, Ospreys had began nesting in Scotland once more in 1954, however their restoration had been falteringly gradual, attributable to egg collectors, marauding Hooded Crows and even disturbance by birdwatchers. Within the late Nineteen Sixties there was nonetheless solely half a dozen pairs. They nested solely in Scotland, so the one likelihood of seeing one in England was chancing upon a passage chook. The date of my sighting means that my Minsmere Osprey was extra more likely to have been a Scandinavian migrant, because the Scottish birds are typically again on their breeding grounds by late March.
I assumed again to this primary encounter earlier this month , once I visited Ranworth Broad in Norfolk to see East Anglia’s first nesting pair of Ospreys. This breeding try (which, on the time of writing, appears like being profitable) wasn’t sudden: that is the third consecutive yr that the Broad has hosted a pair of those birds, however the first time that they’ve settled down and laid eggs. Their nest is a pure one, constructed by the birds themselves, on a tall tree overlooking the Broad, which is a reserve of the Norfolk Wildlife Belief.
It’s typically reckoned that that is the primary time Ospreys have nested in East Anglia for a minimum of 200 years, however the reality is no one actually is aware of. The authoritative The Birds of Norfolk (1999) makes no point out of the chook ever having bred within the county. There have, nevertheless, been a variety of data of birds over-summering in Norfolk within the final 50 years, with Ranworth Broad a preferred website. It’s definitely ultimate for nesting, being undisturbed and with a plentiful provide of fish.
The return of the Osprey as a nesting chook in England has been a gradual one. The primary unsuccessful nest was in Cumbria (near the Scottish border) in 1999, whereas these spectacular birds have been breeding efficiently at Rutland Water, within the coronary heart of England, since 2001. The latter was the results of a introduction undertaking which began in 1996, translocating younger birds from Scottish nests to Rutland. Younger birds will typically return to breed the place they have been reared, however as younger Ospreys spend their first two years in Africa this can be a gradual course of.
Because the preliminary nesting the Rutland inhabitants has elevated to a number of pairs, and a powerful 278 chicks have fledged there, with extra to affix that complete this summer season. Younger birds from Rutland have nested at a variety of different southerly websites, together with Wales and even the Netherlands, whereas it appears extremely possible that one of many Ranworth birds was hatched at Rutland.
The success of the Rutland undertaking has led to comparable reintroductions in in Andalucia, in Spain and Maremma Nationwide Park, Italy, in addition to Portsmouth Harbour on the south coast of England. There have been been plans to introduce the birds to my county of Suffolk, however the nesting in Norfolk means that they’re greater than more likely to set up themselves naturally.
Ospreys are, after all, probably the most cosmopolitan of birds. I’ve seen them on each continent I’ve visited: North and South America, Asia, Australia and Africa, in addition to Europe. All of the Birds of the World exhibits two species: the Western Osprey Pandion haliaeutus and the Jap Osprey, P.cristatus, Nonetheless, the newest AviList lumps them again once more as one species, which appears logical, as any variations between the western and japanese birds are minor.
I’ve seen them broadly in Africa in many various international locations, however curiously they’ve by no means been proved to breed south of the Sahara (there’s a breeding inhabitants alongside the Pink Sea, within the international locations of Somalia and Sudan). Fairly why they don’t nest in Africa is a thriller. Younger birds from Europe and Asia migrate to Africa of their first summer season, and most stay right here for a minimum of two years earlier than returning north to breed.
I’m certain that North American readers shall be questioning what all of the fuss is about, as Ospreys are widespread breeding birds within the USA and Canada, with the inhabitants alongside the east coast one of many densest on the planet. The North American inhabitants did undergo a critical decline 60 years in the past attributable to pesticide poisoning, however has now recovered. The North American birds display how nicely Ospreys can dwell alongside man. Maybe the European birds will finally observe their instance.
