March and April 2008

The Osprey Observer

A magazine of Osprey news from Rutland and further afield

A magazine...?

During 2008 you will find here Osprey stories, interesting news snippets, perhaps a competition... and we need your help. Please send us pictures, news and ideas about what could include to make this an interesting addition to the Rutland Osprey website. Please send us an email.

Translocated Osprey 11(98) returns home

One of the youngsters translocated to Rutland in 1998 returned from migration again last week - but not to Rutland. Since 2004 this male has bred near Portmadog in North Wales and last Thursday the BBC wales website carried the news that he and his mate had returned yet again. He has lost his orange plastic ring but he still has his metal BTO ring and the RSPB team monitoring the nest were able to read the ring number last year.

In fact 11(98) was one of two ex-Rutland males to breed in Wales in 2004. You can read all about it on this page.

And if you'd like to see the details of all the Rutland- translocated Ospreys please click here.

Train spotter

Thanks to Richard Lawson for sending this picture of an Osprey nest on the top of a floodlighting tower, observed at an Amtrak rail yard in America, near to Baltimore on the east coast. The actual location was at a small town called Perryville, not very far from the coast. Ricahrd says that this site is very noisy with workers and machinery, but the birds are not deterred. In fact they have regularly been seen on the ground in the work yard. The staff at Amtrak say that the nest has been on the tower for longer than they can remember, and is used by Ospreys every year. As you can see the tower is very tall, well over 100 feet.

A great place to watch the trains!

Nest of floodlights

Long-distance traveller

This excellent photo arrived this week and, initially, it raised a few questions in our minds. What's an adult female Osprey doing in South Africa on 16th March - shouldn't it be on it's way north? We know that British Ospreys winter in West Africa but some birds that breed further east make the much longer journey through the Eastern Mediterranean and East Africa right down to South Africa. See for example the remarkable migration of a Finnish Osprey, Harri, in 2002-3 (click here) .

Looking carefully at Harri's migration it appears that it did not leave South Africa until the end of March, arriving back at its nest at the end of May. So it seems entirely possible that the female in the photo would be leaving South Africa a week or two after the photo and making the epic 12,500km journey

Osprey eating Tiger Fish: Tinus Potgieter
Osprey eating Tiger Fish in Phongolo Nature Reserve, South Africa on 16th March 2008.
Photo: Tinus Potgieter
   

Osprey migration on the BBC

In March 2008 BBC Radio 4 began broadcasting a major series on animal migration and this coincided with Ospreys leaving their wintering grounds in West Africa and heading for northern Europe. Roy Dennis had been satellite tracking an adult female and contributed to the weekly programmes. You could read about it on the BBC website at www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/worldonthemove or go directly to Roy's site for daily reports of the the bird's progress and maps showing her route.

We were fascinated to see how this migration data compared with some of our findings from the tracking we carried out from 1999 to 2001 and reported on the Migration pages of this website. Here are a few observations.

Roy's Osprey, named Logie, spent the winter on an island called Roxa off the Guinea-Bissau coast. This island is about 60 miles from the wintering position of S09, a Scottish adult male we tracked in 1999. The same year a Scottish adult female S07 spent the winter on the next island to Roxa, just 8 miles away to the west. This group of small islands, the Bijagos Archipelago is clearly an important wintering ground for Scottish Ospreys.

Logie's spring migration followed a more easterly course than her autumn one. The same was true for all the Scottish adults that we were able to track back from wintering in Africa: see S01, S09, S10.

Roy DennisRoy Dennis

Today's advanced technology allows a range of data to be collected and transmitted. In particular we can now discover at what height the bird is flying. So far Logie has been flying over the desert at heights well in excess of 1000 metres. In 2001 we did not know this and believed that their migratory flight was generally quite low - 100 metres to 500 metres above ground level. They do not generally use thermals, unlike many large migratory birds, so there seemed no need for them to go to great heights.

Logie's migration was interrupted when she arrived at the northern coast of Spain in bad weather. Many of the Ospreys that we tracked southwards paused for what were sometimes extended stopovers but none of the spring migrations were interrupted in this way. Logie's stopover in Spain lasted in all 11 days.

We would be pleased to publish further thoughts about how Logie's migration compares with those on this website.

Four books about the Osprey

1) The Home-Life of the Osprey
by C. G. Abbott and published in 1911

This book contains remarkable black and white photographs and a fascinating account of a study carried out near New York nearly a century ago. The photographs have been mounted by hand at the back of the book. Copies may occasionally still be found by specialist book-sellers.

Home-life of the Osprey
Home-life of the Osprey

2) Ospreys, A Natural and Unnatural History,
by Alan F. Poole. (Cambridge University Press, 1989)

This is easily the best book, covering all aspects of Osprey distribution, behaviour, breeding etc. It has been a frequent source of reference for the Rutland Osprey Project team ever since the project began in 1996.

Unfortunately it is out of print, but usually available second-hand through the AbeBooks site. (www.abebooks.co.uk).

Essential for all true Osprey fans!

 
Ospreys, a natural and unnatural history
The Return of the Osprey

3) The Return of the Osprey,
by Philip Brown and George Waterston.
(Collins, 1962).

This is the classic account of the Osprey’s extinction as a breeding species, and its return to the famous eyrie at Loch Garten in Scotland, in the 1950’s and early 60’s.

It is way out of date now, but interesting for anyone who wants to know the whole story of
re-colonisation. Available second-hand only (website above)

4) The Return of the Osprey,
Anglian Water, with Leics & Rutland Wildlife Trust.

A really good booklet telling in detail the story of the Osprey at Rutland Water, from early beginnings to the breeding successes in 2007. It’s ‘FREE’ from the Visitor Centres!

Booklet

Precarious nest sites

In April we were contacted by Iain MacLeod Director of the Squam Lakes Natural Science Center, New Hampshire. (www.nhnature.org) Over 20 years ago Iain worked with the RSPB as a Species Protections Officer in the Edinburgh office. He worked with Ospreys (and Roy Dennis) when the numbers in Scotland were still low.

The New Hampshire Osprey population is growing rapidly and Iain sent some photos showing the variety of nest sites they choose. Included were the two precarious locations below. www.nhnature.org

Nesting attempt at Squam lake
Nest on a very slender tree

The first Ospreys to take up residence at Squam Lake arrived in 2007. They chose this location for their embryonic nest – atop the cross arms of a electricicity pole near the shore of the lake– putting them dangerously close to live wires.

The solution to what could have been a real problem was, once the birds had migrated, to erect an artificial nest platform and move the nest from the pylon, a technique Iain had seen used successfully in Scotland.

This photo shows a New Hampshire nest where the birds were a little short of good trees. This pencil thin tree managed to support the nest last season and the pair fledged two chicks. This was originally a Great Blue Heron nest - a common choice for New Hampshire Ospreys. Many Osprey nests are in a heron rookeries in beaver-made ponds.

This is the spindliest tree Iain has seen used successfully.

Osprey Observer in May and June

Please click here for the stories that appeared here in May and June 2008.

©2008 Rutland Osprey Project.
Photographs and images by members of the Project Team unless otherwise stated.
The project is a partnership between Anglian Water and the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust,
with funding from Augean Plc through the Landfill Tax Credit Scheme.
The project is based at Rutland Water Nature Reserve.