MANTON BAY - MARCH 2018

The purpose of this thread is to record the day-to-day activity at the Manton Bay nest thus freeing up the Rutland Osprey Project 2018 thread for general news on all the other birds, nests and projects.

Details about the Manton Bay nest, including a table of the breeding data, can be found here.   

Last year we were thrilled to see both Maya and Blue 33(11) return within hours of each other on the 22 March and I am sure I speak for us all in wishing them both a safe journey home and for another successful season at Manton Bay. 

  • Yes Ann, he is a fantastic provider and the fish he brings in are huge.  

    I know what you mean about fish and you have not really exaggerated that much as it is possible for them to catch a fish in minutes!   Take Maya on her arrival .. she left the next at 11:58 and returned back at 12:03 with a whopping trout - 5 minutes!!

    And in bad weather, they have the River Gwash Trout Farm.  What a fantastic set up RW is for ospreys.

  • Yes, Manton Bay is a fantastic set up for Ospreys and I am hoping that the Poole Harbour project turns out to be much the same.

    Kind regards, Ann

  • Woo hoo saw that Maya had returned yesterday on my feed update, so as its my day off today, jumped in my car at 11:00  drove 60 miles to Manton Bay (never been before) was very impressed with the set up, the people in the centre were really nice full of information, pointed me in the right direction to the waterscrape hide. So I saw her up on the camera post, she flew off three times whilst I was there went round in a huge circle which took around about 15-20 minutes each time, before perching back on the camera post. What a beautiful girl she is!!  Met some other people also there to see her, they were really nice too. All in all a lovely afternoon. Now to cook our Tuesday roast. I shall definitely go visit again later in the year and maybe take the boat trip I was told about today.

    Gilli

  • Missed my sunrise this morning, so making do with a Sunset.   Can't be bad eh!  just wish Maya had been on the nest though. :-)

    © LEICESTER AND RUTLAND WILDLIFE TRUST

  • I am late joining the party!!  Woo hoo, our first osprey of the 2018 season.  And what a beautiful day today has been for her.  

    Birdie's DU Summaries 2018   https://www.imagicat.com/

  • Sparrowkin - I can totally recommend the boat trips.  I have been both as a visitor and a volunteer in the past few years and you can get some great views of them fishing.  Obviously not guaranteed though!  

  • Sandra, Lucky you to be close enough to Rutland Water to visit often and to volunteer!   How were you introduced to Ospreys and when was your first Manton Bay visit?  I'd love to volunteer there but we live too far away.  Hoping that we are able to go on one of the boat trips ourselves this year.  Everything I've read about them sounds wonderful and it seems that nearly every trip sees at least one Osprey and even it they did not see one, it still sounds lovely, travelling with all those other Osprey fans.

    Kind regards, Ann

  • Ann,  I came across the Ospreys by accident before I moved back to my home county of Leicestershire.  My partner who was already in the county suggested that we went to Rutland Water to the nature reserve.  We intended to go to Egleton and ended up in Lyndon after taking a wrong turn.  It was 5R's final year there.    I got addicted after that and once I moved back I decided to volunteer.  I can't wait to get started on the 24th.  

  • Unknown said:
    We intended to go to Egleton and ended up in Lyndon after taking a wrong turn.  It was 5R's final year there.

    Fantastic.  Your visit must have been one of those things that are meant to be.

    Our herring gulls are red listed birds.  Think about that the next time you hear some flaming idiot calling for a cull of them.

  • Here are some snaps of Maya (mainly her wings!) since her early-morning visits.  Might try just recording one cam tomorrow, for the sake of better resolution.  Or might not :-/

    Eh?!