It seems rather late in the season, but I have just received a report of an osprey seen flying northwards from Garlieston over Wigtown Bay at mid-day on Tuesday 4th October, unfortunately it was unidentifiable whilst in flight.
Could this be one of our birds still around the area, or are we still getting highland birds passing through?
If anyone has any more recent sightings of ospreys in the area, please let me know, either by posting on here or by emailing ian.brown@rspb.org.uk
And a question for all you National Osprey Watchers out there, are there still reports of ospreys moving through Scotland? When was the last bird reported to be seen at a nest?
Ian
It's great to have received so many email replies. I'll try to respond to them all on here as I keen to have as much information and discussion on here as possible. I will also reply to people by emial:
Original goldfinch: Thanks for your comment, as I say it's nice to have people replying on here, and for your email. Also thanks for flagging this post up on the Loch Garten discussion board. As you say it may be one of this years birds, maybe a juvenille from our nest from a previous year, or perhaps a passing migrant who is just stopping at the Wigtown Bay fish takeaway! We know that a lot of northern birds do pass through D&G. Let's just hope that we get more sightings reported, either to the visitor centre or on here, sightings with ring readings would be even better!
ShielaFE: Thanks for your email with the link to Alan Petrie's posts on the Loch Garten site. It's interesting seeing how many UK sightings there still are, because our Wigtown Ospreys migrated early (last seen at nest on 25th Aug, last reported osprey sighting over Wigtown Bay prior to this week 1st Sept), it has seemed that all osprey activity has ceased in the area and we are now focussing on geese and whooper swans, so the recent osprey sighting took me by suprise!
Gill Lewis: I'm not sure if you are a regular user of the RSPB Blogs, or not, as you said that you heard about my question of ospreys still being in the UK via twitter, and as yet I do not tweet. Anyway, however you heard about it, it's great to hear from you, especially as you are the author of the children's book, Skyhawk, which is about ospreys! I have to confess I haven't read your book yet (although there is a library downstairs from the Wigtown Visitor Centre, so I'll go and see if they can get me a copy!) but I was invited to attend an event you were doing at Ayr library this spring, unfortunately, I broke my ankle so was unable to attend. Anyway thanks for your email to tell me that Ozwold, one of the chicks that your publishers sponsored is still in Scotland. I hope he has a safe migration when the current bad weather finally abates.
Maybe it's a two year old who returned late and therefore is late setting off again - needing to rebuild its weight for the flight. Not surprised it flew north - in the current southerly winds it will have some difficulty flying southward till after the weekend! Interesting - maybe there will be another sighting with ID.
Ospreys Rule OK, but Goldfinches come a close second!