|
NEWS
PUBLISHED IN JUNE 2006
Cruise
news
During the month we
decided to make a few more places available on
each of the remaining Osprey and Wildlife
Cruises. Predictably these new places were
quicky sold too.
A report of some of the
June cruises is here.
Where
to see an Osprey in Rutland
If they were fishing
at the east end of the reservoir, recommended
watch sites were the dam or Normanton Church.
The area of the North Arm around Barnsdale and
Dickenson's Bay was also good with excellent
views from Fisherman's Carpark (picture
below) |
Proud parents looking at their hidden
young
|
Guided
viewing from Fisherman's Carpark.
Barnsdale and Dickenson's
Bay are on the opposite shore.
Thursday
1 June
How
many chicks?
That's the question
everyone was asking and for the moment we just didn't
know the answer.
A new page was added to this
website summarising this year's events at the breeding
nest .
Please click
here.
Photo
in search of a caption
A few more suggestions
arrived. Please click here.
Saturday
3 June: Fish, fish and more fish
Each day the male 03(97) was
bringing four or five fish to the nest. Some were large,
like the one on the left and some were small like the
one-footed effort shown on the right.
Sunday
4 June: it's triplets again
Yesterday evening for the
first time, John Wright was able to see three tiny heads
above the rim of the nest. Yet again 03(97) and 05(00)
have produced a full clutch, bringing their total of
chicks to 11 since they first got together in
2003.
This news meant that there were
three chicks at each of the three Osprey nests south of
the Scottish border this year.
The Lake District Osprey Project, diary page reported on
Friday that their third chick was holding its own and
growing fast. (Click
here to link to that
site). Also from North Wales the Glaslyn Osprey Project
Diary reported that three chicks hatched on 23 May
(Click
here for
link).
|
Wednesday
7 June:
Some
Ospreys do eat eggshells
Last month we posed the
question "Do female Ospreys eat the eggshells
after the chicks have hatched?"
And here's the answer in
the form of a photo sent by Cecilia Wheeler. It
came from the webcam on the Dennis Puleston
Osprey Fund website (click
here). The
webcam had shown the female (named Betty) eating
the shell parts and also perhaps part of a
failed egg.
There is a suggestion that
eating the eggshell can help the female to
replace some calcium. All comments and further
thoughts about this are most welcome. Please...
send
us an email.
|
 |
|
|
Osprey
with trout as seen from the Rutland Belle.
Photo: Helen and Dave Heath |
Photo
competition
In May we announced
that whoever sends us the best picture of an
Osprey flying at Rutland Water in 2006 will
receive two complimentary tickets for the
Birdfair and the Osprey cruise on Saturday 19
August.
On the left is another
entry, this time
from
Helen and Dave
Heath who were also on the cruise on 29 April.
It's the same cruise, same Osprey and same trout
as pictured by Mark Weaver and John Henwood.
(Click
here)
|
|
Monday
19th June
Female
Osprey below and Buzzard above
Photo: Sue James |
Action at the nest site
The previous calm at
the breeding nest site dissipated last week. Of
course there were the antics of the growing
chicks - one in particular liked to climb up
onto the side of the nest giving the monitoring
team heart attacks. There is a new picture of
the three chicks, here
on the separate page that describes this year's
breeding.
Also lots of avian
intruders were recorded and the parent birds
were kept busy seeing them off. Pictured left
the female 05(00) is chasing a Common Buzzard,
who no doubt would see a young Osprey chick as a
good food supply for his own offspring.
Volunteer Sue James took
the photo which shows nicely the differences in
the shape between an Osprey's and a Buzzard's
wings.
|
Another
unringed female - it's U7
Early last week it
became clear that there was another female
present in Rutland with all three non-breeding
males, 08(97), 09(98) and 06(00) stirred up and
competing for her attention. There was one
morning when she was sitting at the side of the
reservoir with all three of them calling and
displaying above her. So far she seemed to be
keeping her options open, though she spent some
of the weekend sitting with 08(97) and visible
from the Lyndon Reserve.
This female had very
different markings from any we had seen before
with a particularly well defined edge to a
uniform brown breast band. We called her U7 -
unringed female no 7.
And
another male - perhaps it's the Red
Rover? |
However, the real
excitement began on Saturday when Field Officer
John Wright and volunteers at the nest site
became aware that there was new non-breeding
male Osprey around who kept intruding on the
nest. It had a red ring seen on its right leg,
indicating that it was one of the birds
translocated here in 2000, so itseemed likely
that it was 02(01). This male had been first
positively identified in Rutland in 2004. Last
year it was seen here, in the Lake District and
another English site, earning him the nickname
of the Red Rover.
On Saturday evening this
bird was seen furiously chasing 09(98) a
distance of at least two miles north of the
reservoir.
|
The whole Osprey family: but who is 03(97) screaming
at from the right-hand branch? Could it be the Red
Rover?
|
08(01)
on the artificial nest on Lax Hill on 18th
June |
No,
it's a different 08
It was all action again on
Sunday 17 June until in late afternoon the red-ringed
male brought a fish to the artificial nest on
Lax Hill. At last John Wright was able to read
the ring-number clearly. It was a red ring with
the white lettering 08. Another
of the translocated juveniles had survived to
adulthood! His
ring had last been read on 31st August 2001 when
he set off on his initial migration from
Rutland. Where had he been in the intervening
years? And how many more of the young Rutland
Ospreys, (both translocated and those from the
breding nest) may there be out there
somewhere?
|
So there were now two
Ospreys in Rutland with a ring numbered 08. The
famous one with a white ring is 08(97) - he
merits a webpage all to himself
(click
here). The
newcomer with a red ring was 08(01). And, as
John Wright watched the new 08 eating his fish
on the Lax Hill nest last night, what should
happen but 08(97) flew in and dislodged him - a
clear message .. "get out of my
territory"!
|
Family
relations
Another interesting
fact about 08(01) - he started life in the same
Scottish nest as the breeding female 05(00).
They are very probably brother and sister,
though he is one year younger.
08(01)'s return brings the
total number of returned Ospreys from the first
phase of translocation to 13.
|
|
|
Sunday
25th June
The
Italian connection
We reported last
September that a project is under way to
translocate Ospreys to the Regional Park of
Maremma on the coast of Tuscany, Italy.
(Click
here for
details and pictures). This year six young birds
were moved from Corsica and were were ready for
release. Last week Tim Mackrill and John Wright
travelled to Maremma to advise and be present
while the first two birds took their first
successful flights. |
Red
08 at the Fishponds
After being evicted from
Lax Hill, as described above, 08(01) took up
residence at the Burley Fishponds, sitting
serenely in the dead tree just 150 yards from
the road for most of Wednesday and Thursday.
This meant that it was very easy for visitors to
see him, with views through the telescope
enabling every feather to be distinguished and
the ring number very easily read.
On Friday he was on the
nearby artificial nest and then moved off and
has not been seen around the reserve since
then. |
|
New
team member
We welcomed Paul
Waterhouse who joined the team as an
Information Officer this week.
Paul spent much of
last summer gathering and analysing data
about last year's chicks as part of his
undergraduate degree
dissertation. |
|
|
|
|
Eight
John Wright photos
Many people have admired
John's pictures that appear on this website. Eight
of them were now available from the Visitor Centres
as postcards at 30 pence each. |
|
     
Meanwhile
the Rutland chicks continued to thrive
Away from all the
action around the reservoir, the three newest Rutland
Ospreys continued to grow, feed, stretch their wings
and delight the volunteers who are still monitoring
their progress. This year's breeding was described
here.
The story
of the project in 2006 continues here.
|
