RUTLAND OSPREY PROJECT 2021

Unknown said:

Karen, you follow this nest closely. Can you solve the Maya/Scotland mystery please?

Korky - just seen your post!   

There was an explanation for their reasoning in a blog and is more or less the same as Ann has posted.  Maya being unringed, can't really be 100% certain.

I will try and find it or maybe it was in the Rutland Osprey Book.  Anyway when I come across it I'll post a link.

Unknown said:

Thanks GB for your well-reasoned thoughts. I agree it's a distinct possibility but it's a bit of a bold statement to put so definitively. Had Maya arrived with a tartan necklace or carrying a haggis I might have been more convinced.

Blue 4K(13) arrived safely back at Rutland on Wednesday

21 ospreys back in the area!

Unknown said:

Thanks Sheila, always good to see historical footage. I was a bit surprised to hear the narrator say Maya 'because she came from Scotland was never ringed'. Eh?? I doubt they have any idea where she came from!?

EDIT!! I've just found this on Rutland's website; 'The osprey nest in Manton Bay has been in use since 2007 by different osprey pairings, but has been occupied since 2010 by the same female bird - an unringed Scottish female, nicknamed 'Maya'.

How do they know she's from Scotland?

I found this on a Rotary Club website;

'Volunteer guide Paul Stammers explained that he had used the first and last two letters from the location MAnton bAY and arranged them in honour of a goddess of fertility!'

If I ever knew that, I'd forgotten

In 2009 there were very few ospreys in England and Wales. All the birds that were unringed had to come from Scotland where only a percentage of the birds are ringed. That is because sometimes the trees are too risky to climb.  Or the weather curtails the ringing. In the short window when ringing is possible a limited number of birds can be ringed.

The very first female to breed at Rutland was unringed so was presumably a Scottish bird too.

Now the bird who was later named Maya I think arrived late in 2009. She paired up with   32 (05) in Lagoon 4  but he came to harm. Maya then switched to his brother  green 5R  who had been holding Manton Bay for some time.

8 (97)  and Green 5N  first bred in Manton Bay in 2007.  They raised two chicks that year.   In 2008    8 (97) went missing for 48 hours and the nest failed. In the winter of 2008/2009 the nest was moved.  When the birds came back they stayed around for a week but decided to move to another nest. 

Some time after that Green 5R  claimed  Manton Bay for  himself  and Maya eventually joined him. 

Tiger, I remember reading comments or blogs from the time Maya was named (after 5R did not return in 2014) that her name came from the the letters MA and AY in Manton Bay and rearranged, although I cannot remember if Paul's name was mentioned as having invented it or not. With 5R gone, it seemed continuing to call her Mrs 5R, as some had done, was no longer a good idea.