I have just had a look at Sanibel cam and I see an Osprey has arrived. No idea who it is - is it Ripply from last year or a new bird. I remember last year finding a facebook/blog page about this nest but for the life of me can't remember what it was so can't compare images from last season, so if anyone else can remember......
Great thanks
There have been two ospreys on the Sanibel nest for the last couple of hours, it is the male who has been there for a few weeks but maybe is a new female? It is not the one that was around most recently, anyway. This one has more speckling on the breast.
Ah! I was going to say they seem to be getting on OK, but he has just chased her off the nest! Oh well!
Maybe it is getting too late for Sanibel. In the past they laid eggs around Christmas Day. Last year it was about 8 February.
Tiger Signature
First 2014 blog from the Etang du Ravoir in the Foret d'Orleans and....they have had an osprey hanging around since Feb 14th!
Fishing
Checking out the nest
I take it that's unusually early?
Our herring gulls are red listed birds. Think about that the next time you hear some flaming idiot calling for a cull of them.
Oh, sad about Sanibel, I was looking foreward to maybe having a breeding pair there. There has been a lot of chasing going on for a while, I wonder why no pairs were formed, if it is the season for them there.
Having just checked a map I now know that l'Etang du Ravoir is in central France - February 14th seems very early indeed.
Clare Bailey said: Having just checked a map I now know that l'Etang du Ravoir is in central France - February 14th seems very early indeed.
Clare
I think they are suspecting that this early returner is a "celebrity" known as Panchita.
She nests nearby, and does have a yellow ring on her right leg, which was put on at her wintering site on the northern Spanish coast - so if it's her, she hasn't flown up from Africa.
Ah, so this would be a perfectly normal time of year to see a bird who winters relatively close?
Clare, have looked into this a bit further.
This is a 2013 article from alertapescadora.com an osprey website run by FAPAS, the conservation body in Asturias region which ringed Panchita (Yellow 82), and monitors osprey activity along that section of Biscay coast. They say that in 2012 & 2013, Panchita was at her Ria del Eo wintering site till the beginning of March, so this is an unusually early return even for her.
I think the reason might be the weather - the Urdaibai Bird Centre site is reporting the same sort of seabird wreck seen recently along the English south coast. Perhaps she has come back to the Loire in search of calmer fishing.