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NEWS
PUBLISHED IN JULY 2006
The undoubted highlight of this month
was the amazing news that first one, and then two juvenile
Ospreys from 2004 had returned.
Return of the first Rutland-bred Osprey
Field Officer, John Wright
was at the Fisherman's car park overlooking the North Arm
on 11th June, when a male Osprey came into view. The bird
was fishing and seemingly oblivious to John and the other
engrossed watchers, less than 100m away on the shoreline.
The bird hovered briefly, dangling its feet in the
process and revealing a green ring on its right leg.
06(00), a male who
has been present in Rutland all summer has a green ring
on his right leg, but John, who has an unparalleled
knowledge of all the Rutland Ospreys, quickly realised
that this bird was not 06. Unlike 06 it had not moulted
any feathers, and its breast band was slightly more
well-defined. So who could it be? Unfortunately the bird
did not perch and so it was not possible to read the
ring. However, through a process of elimination we
suspected it to be 5R, a male who fledged from the Site B
nest in 2004. Prior to John's sighting in the North Arm,
the bird had intruded briefly at the breeding nest before
being chased away by the male, 03(97): not a particularly
warm home-coming from his father if it was 5R!
Osprey
5R(04)
Photo:
Keith Burtonwood
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However, the bird
remained a mystery until early July, when we
received the photograph on the left from Keith
Burtonwood. It shows a male Osprey with a green
ring on its right leg and was of sufficient
quality for us to read the ring number: 5R!
Remarkably, Keith had taken the photograph at
Coombe Abbey Country Park near Coventry at 5am
on 11th June. So 5R had been present there in
the morning, before appearing at Rutland Water
in the afternoon. The distance from Coombe
Valley to Rutland is about 35 miles - perhaps
only a hour's flight for an Osprey.
5R(04)
is the first naturally-reared chick to return to
England or Wales for 150
years and so it a
real milestone for the project. When he
reappeared he was just over 2 years old, having
hatched on 6 June 2004. You can click
here to read
the story of the beginning of his life, first
flights and start of migration.
We have
not recorded 5R since then, but this is fairly
typical of two-year old birds who usually return
only very briefly to their natal site. For
example, a two-year old Finnish Osprey that was
being satellite-tracked was recorded spending
just one day at its natal site before starting
the long migration south again.
We are most grateful to
Keith Burtonwood who has his own website:
www.clickonthewildside.com
Keith's sighting
not only demonstrates the value of colour
ringing, but also the importance of reading the
inscription if you are lucky enough to see a
colour-ringed Osprey. Perhaps there are other
Rutland birds out there who are just waiting to
be found! |
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Delight
at return of 5R
Thanks to all the
many folks around the world who have sent emails
and messages expressing their delight about the
return of the first Rutland-bred chick. The
press, both local and national, covered the
story: see for example the Daily Telegraph's
report here
and the Leicester Mercury article reproduced on
the right.
The latter included a
quote from an RSPB spokesman which is
particularly welcome:
"This is fantastic news
and a tribute to all the work carried out over
the years by the Wildlife Trust and Anglian
Water. You just need to look back 100 years,
when there were no ospreys or red kites in
England and very few buzzards, to realise what
great things can be achieved thanks to projects
like this one."
Another
picture of 5R
During the first few
months of 5R's life in 2004 he was drawn by John
Wright and those field sketches are used on the
limited edition print that is on sale in the
visitor centres or by post. Details are
here. |
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It's hard to believe, but....5N(04) returns
too
Recently
we reported on the return of 5R(04), the first
English-bred Osprey for 150 years. Reading that
report you cannot fail to realise how important the
return of that 2-year old male is to the long-term
success of the Rutland Osprey Project. Now comes
even more fantastic news...
In 2004 5R had a
twin sister.
He still has
a twin sister
- since Saturday 15
July, she has been present in Manton
Bay.
The new arrival was first
spotted on AN1, the artificial nest on Lax Hill. It
was clearly a female because of the attention she
was receiving from two males above. The new bird
moved off to the Manton Bay area and it was soon
possible to glimpse the green ring on the right
leg. However, it was well over an hour before John
Wright and Martin Blee, from opposite sides of the
bay, were able to confirm the characters on the
ring. It was 5N.
So, the entire 2004 brood
from the Rutland nest have returned as two-year
olds. If you click
here you can see
the picture of 5N taking her first flight on 27
July 2004, just like her younger siblings were
doing this weekend. (see below).
Regular visitors to the
website will not be surprised to learn that 5N is
not alone in Manton Bay. Good old 08(97) has been
"looking after her". (See 08's
own webpage ) He
has been bringing fish to her and she has been
sitting on the various perches and nests around the
waterside, providing more great views (despite the
heat haze) from the varous hides on the Lyndon
Reserve. Why not come and see her for yourself?
We don't know how much longer
she will stay - remember how fleeting 5R's visit
was in June? But every day she stays makes it seem
more likely that she will return again in future
years.
5N and 08 in
the early morning of 18th July: Photo John Wright
(Look what she's done with the fish!)
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5N - an early picture
With all the
excitement in Manton Bay, 5N's picture must have
been taken very many times in the last ten
days.
However, we thought it
would be good to re-publish the first ever
photograph of this female. It was taken on 1st
July 2004 when she was three and a half weeks
old. She is one of the two chicks taking a first
look at the Rutland countryside. Which of the
chicks is she? ... Yes, good
question!
And here's another
question which is open to speculation: would
5N's parents now recognise and remember their
offspring? She certainly didn't get a very warm
welcome home on the occasion when she visited
the nest soon after arriving back after her gap
year in West Africa. |
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Three
young chicks were ringed and later fledged
The three chicks at the
breeding nest were ringed with three different coloured
rings this year. Details were added to the page
describing this year's breeding here.
But which of the three chicks would
be first to fledge? Would it be yellow 7T, the very big
female? In the event it was actually maroon AA who flew
first on Friday 14th July. After the excitement of his
first flight, volunteers monitoring the nest over the
weekend had a most exciting time. Peter Pritchard and Di
Sinclair were there early Saturday morning and recorded
these pictures of maroon AA showing his sisters just how
great it is to fly.
  
15th July.
Early flights of maroon AA. Photos: Peter
Pritchard
By Saturday afternoon Bob
Jackson was reporting that yellow 7T was also airborne.
And by Sunday afternoon Sue James was taking these
photos, with all three juveniles in the air at
once.
  
16th
July: All three juveniles have fledged. Photos: Sue
James
The
mechanics of catching a fish
On the Questions
pages of the website another issue was being debated: at
what speed does an Osprey hit the water and how does it
get airborne again?
Some German research provided some answers. Please
click
here - lots of
fascinating reading!
Picture
from the Osprey evening on 26 July:
08(97) caught a fish right in front of
us.
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Osprey
Cruises and Osprey Evenings
Every 10 days
another Osprey and Wildlife Cruise took place
and there were some excellent views of fishing
Ospreys from the Rutland Belle. Those who were
lucky enough to be on the Osprey and Wildlife
Cruise on 22 July may want to click
here to read a
report, see a picture and read a poem(!)
Those not on the cruise
may want to avoid feelings of jealousy by
not reading the report.
All cruises had become
fully booked long before, apart from those due
to take place as part of Birdfair in
August.
We also advertised Osprey
Evenings: a chance to spend a Wednesday evening
with members of the project team as we tried to
see Ospreys catching fish from the land.
Fortunately, the Ospreys were very cooperative!.
Two more evenings like this were planned for 9th
and 23rd August.
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Tracking
Osprey migration
A very large new
display panel was erected in the Anglian Water
Birdwatching Centre at Egleton.
It describes some of what
we learned about Osprey migration from the
satellite tracking carried out in 1999 -2001.
The full details can be found here.
The
story of the project in 2006 continues
here. |
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