OSPREY SIGHTINGS 2016

Another at Gibraltar. Time to switch on your RobotHousekeeper

27 Feb: Cloudy first thing in the morning becoming clearer with sunny spells during the afternoon. Winds fresh and at times strong north to north-westerly. Mainly clear skies with some westerly cloud. Winds fresh north west. Soaring birds counted at the Observtory included 10 White Storks, 3 Black Storks, 238 Black Kites, an Egyptian Vulture, and an Osprey. Also seen were 13 Swallows, 2 Red-rumped Swallows and 20 House Martins.

YEEEAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Don't cheer too soon Clare. The photo we saw appeared to be a juvenile cormorant not an osprey.

ChloeB said:

Don't cheer too soon Clare. The photo we saw appeared to be a juvenile cormorant not an osprey.

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Clare Bailey said:

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There is a picture of this "osprey" and it is thought to be an osprant.

See   Ospreyitis

Clare, this link to FB has the photo, and comments on whether it is, or isn't, an osprey.  Cruachan - The Hollow Mountain

In all fairness to the photographer, it is a very long and indistinct shot, and very difficult to id at all.

This GE snip is from the Cruachan - The Hollow Mountain car park, and gives some indication of the distance across the loch to where the osprey was sitting on the far side.

This is the photo on the FB page - public - how could you +ly id that!

SheilaFE - thanks very much for posting the link and photo shown on FB.  I agree, very difficult to positively ID.  

Personally, I think it is still a bit early but it has been a very mild winter and considering Beatrice has started back a little earlier, we could see some early ones.      

SheilaFE said:

Clare, this link to FB has the photo, and comments on whether it is, or isn't, an osprey.

Thanks for that.  In all honesty it's hard to tell what it is - but I don't think it's a cormorant.  It just doesn't look weirdly prehistoric enough.

Clare Bailey said:

but I don't think it's a cormorant.  It just doesn't look weirdly prehistoric enough.

So what is it?