Osprey Chat Thread for October, November & December 2013

Continued from Osprey Chat Thread September 2013

At the beginning of September I said that the osprey season should have been all over but it wasn't. Well it is now. Yes the two very late osprey chicks at Dyfi viz. Clarach and Cerist finally migrated on 18th and 20th September respectively. They were incredibly well fed chicks and are now presumably well on their way to Africa. Hopefully they will return to Britain in 2015 but since they are not tracked it will be a very long and anxious wait.

Meanwhile the latest European trans location project to Basque country began to report in earnest. Five of the birds are tracked and four of them are slogging their way through the Sahara as I write.  For details  see  here

The 2013 osprey has been the most exciting for me ever and I have now seen  15 osprey seasons. Maybe it is because more and more people are taking an interest and doing their own little pieces. Surely this can only bee good for ospreys and their well being. 

So all that remains is for us to follow the tracked birds to their destinations and then begin the long wait until it all begins again in March 2014. 

Let us hope we all be ready for an exciting 2014 

  • From my own selfish reasons I would like to see a trans-location to Ireland possibly to Lough Erne (well if it is suitable for the G8 it should be good for a few ospreys)   

    However I think that is likely to be wishful thinking and probably the most effective places for trans-locations would be, Devon, Kent or Norfolk. 

    There must to pros and cons to all of those.

  • When the translocated ospreys have fledged, do they keep returning to the base from where they are released, to be fed, as if it were a nest, until they feel ready to travel further afield ?

  • Unknown said:

    When the translocated ospreys have fledged, do they keep returning to the base from where they are released, to be fed, as if it were a nest, until they feel ready to travel further afield ?



    Yes indeed. It is all recorded in the Rutland diary from 1999 onwards.

  • Brenda as Tiger has indicated the Rutland site will give all the background and detail. Essentially the concept was that the young birds would imprint on their surroundings when they fledged and thus be drawn back to the same area once mature. There are of course exceptions BUT by and large that is what the Rutland project established. Once they are released fish is provided for them at or near the release pens and they will rely upon this until the urge to migrate takes over.

  • Thank you very much, Tiger. I have read books but they do not give such detail as reading all those diary records. I did not follow Rutland back then.

  • Thank you Mike. I have often wondered about the actual detail of the release.