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2006: 03(97) and
05(00) breeding again
Below is the story in words
and pictures of the breeding at the Rutland Osprey nest
in 2006. Almost all the pictures on this page were taken
by John Wright. The most recent news is at the
bottom of
the page.
24 March: the male returned
The male 03(97) arrived back at the
nest. He was just 2 days later than the previous year, but
looking in superb condition after his long flight from the
wintering grounds in (presumably) West Africa. Field Officer
John Wright was watching 03(97) and taking these photos less
than 24 hours after the breeding male's return. John said,
"the nest is the worst I've ever seen. It's virtually a huge
ball of soil and turf without any sticks holding it
together. " So there was lots of work for 03 to do before
his mate 05(00) also returned.
29 - 30 March: Highland fling?
Yes, Ospreys are monogamous and they
mate for life but...
During the late afternoon of 29th
March it was clear that there was a second Osprey on
03(97)'s nest tree. It was a female with an orange ring on
the left leg, probably indicating a bird ringed as a
fledgling in the highlands of Scotland in 1998. The female
was around for the whole of the next day though very strong
winds made it difficult for Ospreys and observers alike to
maintain steady positions. By the evening the wind was
moderating and Tim Mackrill and John Wright were able to
read the ring number: it was VB. John described what
happened later:
03 came back with a trout
while female VB was sitting on the nest. He then took
half of the fish up to the nest but stood holding the
fish with his back to the female, teasing her. 03 then
left the nest with the fish, returning to a lower branch
to continue eating. The clumsy so-and-so then dropped the
whole half fish into the brambles below the tree, leaving
VB none too pleased!
The
female is on the left.
You can just see her orange
ring |
03(97)
tries to have his way with her.
What will happen when/if his regular mate
returns? |
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31st
March: 05(00) arrived back ... with very nice
timing
At 4:15pm the breeding female
returned to her nest site. Last year she had
arrived at 5 pm, just one day later on 1st April.
Project Officer Tim Mackrill was at the nest site,
looking in vain for the Scottish female VB. She had
probably moved on to her established nest and mate
in Scotland. Tim described what
happened:
From perching in a
nearby ash tree, 03(97) suddenly set off with
the remains of a piece of fish. He called
frantically over the nest and then flew upwards
almost out of sight - a sure indication that
there was a female up there. Then on a sure
trajectory, using a flight path that she knows
so well, 05(00) flew idown, inch perfect, no
hesitaton, no looking around, straight onto the
nest at speed.
The green ring confirmed that
it was the bird we had been most anxious to see -
it was 05. Things looked good for another
successful breeding year for the Rutland
Ospreys. |
1st April: Nest reconstruction
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With the breeding pair
reunited nest reconstruction continued in earnest.
03(97) was very busy building up the nest with
sticks and grass. He flew to a nearby tree and used
his weight to break off twigs or branches.The size
of the resulting stick is a matter of luck
-sometimes the results were spectacular! |
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John Wright described the
incident on the left:
When 03 dropped in with this
branch it just stuck into the bottom of the nest
and jammed. He eventally flattened it by perching
on it. Maybe he's seen the 'French Perch' in Manton
Bay and fancied one himself!
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16
April: eggs are laid and incubation begins
Pictures from John Wright's camera
showed that all was proceeding well at the nest where the
pair of translocated Ospreys were breeding for the fourth
successive year. Below left you can see the male balancing
delicately on the female's back just prior to yet another
successful mating. The picture on the right shows the female
sitting low in the nest, covering her eggs with the male in
close watchful attendance.
Incubation continued very
uneventfully for 37 days. The male brought one or two fish a
day to feed himself and his mate. 70% of the incubation was
done by the female and 30% by the male. There were no
serious attempts by other birds to steal the eggs or occupy
the nest. It was all very peaceful and quiet in this remote
corner of Rutland, away from the more lively activity around
the reservoir.
23
May: Hatching... one, two..?
Very wet weather during mid-May made
monitoring the nest an extremely uncomfortable and anxious
experience. Volunteers trudged through ankle-deep mud to the
monitoring point and then peered through the telescopes and
night-sights, pointing them through windows half- closed
against the rain. However, the experienced Osprey pair kept
their heads down covering the eggs, with the male actually
increasing the fish-supply: five small trout were caught
during the continuous rain of 21st May.
Then the Ospreys' behaviour changed,
as night-watchman George Batchelor reported:
From 10pm we became aware
that the female Osprey was unusually restless in the
nest, continually adjusting her position and sitting with
her tail very high. She was on the move for most of the
night, only seeming to settle between 2:00 and 3:30am.
Through the night-sight we could
see that the male was also on the move, flying from his
nearby branch to the nest at midnight and following this
with two or three more fly-arounds during the hours of
darkness. Unusually he spent time watching from the
branch beside the nest. At 4:30am he again came to the
nest and then in the half-light of early dawn he flew off
towards the reservoir. By 4:50 he was back with a small
fish that he brought straight to the nest. The female
showed no interest in eating, so the male flew away to a
branch and tucked in himself.
At 5:30 the male brought the
remains of the fish back to the edge of the nest. The
female again showed no interest, so the male resumed
tearing and eating himself. Then, taking great care, he
tore a piece of fish and offered it downwards into the
nest beside the female. This was repeated three times
before he flew off empty footed to a nearby
tree.
It seemed that the
first hatching had occurred, just 37 days after
incubation began.
Two days later volunteers
Viv Macdonald and John Foster saw another change
in the adult female's behaviour, probably
indicating the hatching of a second chick. They
also saw egg shell being removed from the nest.
The next day the female
was recorded gently rocking down to sit on
another egg after having presented tiny food
pieces into two different parts of the nest. So,
despite the continuing awful weather, it seemed
that all was well in the Osprey nest.
It would be another 10
days or so before we would be able to see the
chicks' heads and know for sure how many there
were.
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The proud parents inspecting the
chicks. |
3
June: It's triplets again
This 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.
The
three chicks on 17th June,
smallest on the right and largest on the
left |
Mid
June
The three heads are
showing very regularly above the parapet of the
nest.
Fish supply is still very
good and there always seems to be some food
ready in the nest when the female feels she
should feed the chicks. Recently the male has
brought several Bream to the nest - they have
not appeared on the menu previously this
year.
Another change of
behaviour noticed recently is large clumps of
turf being grought to the nest. We have noticed
before how, as the chicks grow, the cup-shaped
nest that provides protection is transformed to
more of a flat platform, ready for when the
chicks are ready to start taking off and landing
again. |
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30
June: The chicks are ringed
The chicks have
continued to grow and to thrive. At this time,
with the chicks not yet able to fly but with
their legs fully grown, it is safe to take them
briefly from the nest and fit the rings that
will enable them to be uniquely identified in
the future.
Getting up to the nest is
no easy task and we are grateful again to BT for
the loan of a "cherry picker" to lift the
climber most of the way to the nest. The chicks
were gently lowered, one at a time to the ground
where they were quickly weighed, measured and
ringed. At this stage it is possible to make a
very good estimate of their sex - it looks like
two females and a male.
Roy Dennis, who organises
the colour ringing programme for Ospreys
throughout the UK, had provided rings of
different colours this year, so the male
(pictured right) was given a maroon ring
inscribed AA, the larger female has a yellow
ring, 7T, and the second female a silver ring,
also inscribed AA. There was a very large
difference in size - the male weighing just 1350
g and the bigger female a whopping 1800 g.
The parents flew close
overhead while the ringing took place but were
back on the nest within minutes of the ringing
team disappearing.
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The
middle-sized chick, probably a female, has a silver ring with the letters AA
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The
smallest chick, a male is given a maroon ring
also with the letters AA! |
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12
July: Fully grown and ready for lift
off
There are often four
very large birds on the nest now and it's not
alway easy to see the difference between the
generations. In the picture on the right the
adult female is the bird on the left. How can
you tell? Adults do not have the pale fringing
on the dark feathers on their back.
All week, with fresh
westerly winds, the chicks have been exercising
their wings, beating the air and doing lifted
hops on the nest.
Any day now one will be
taking off and favourite is the big female
chick, yellow 7T. |
Four
in a row - but which one is
Mum? |
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One
of 7T's many lifted hops, when it was a few feet
above the nest but still not properly
fledged |
14
July: First flight - but it's not the
favourite
At 10.40am one of
the chicks spread its wings and effortlessly
took to the air, watched by volunteer Mike
Lisle. It flew for about one minute before
landing on a lower branch of the tree. Because
of the much greater degree of activity, lifted
hops etc, we l expected that it would be yellow
7T, but we were all surprised when a close look
at the bird on the lower branch showed that it
was the male chick maroon AA, who was pictured
above during ringing.
The next day there were
several more flights from maroon AA and more
attempts from 7T during the morning. Then in the
afternoon 7T actually plucked up courage and
made two short flights, leaving (at 3:30pm) just
one chick left alone in the nest. No doubt
silver AA would be following its siblings
example very soon. |
16
July: All three flying free
After the excitement of the
first flight on Friday, 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.
  
Early
flights of maroon AA on 15th July. 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
20 July:
7T disappeared
It had become apparent that
the eldest juvenile, 7T, was not returning to the nest to
be fed. Given that she was in excellent condition and
flying competently the last time we saw her, she may have
already gained independence and dispersed away from the
nest site. However, the first week after fledging is a
dangerous time for any young bird and so we cannot rule
out the possibility that she may have died.
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4
August: 05(00) gets restless
With the juveniles
increasingly independent, the breeding female
was showing signs that her thoughts may have
been turning away from her offspring. In the
past week she has been seen circling high above
the nest before drifting off south. On one
occasion she was away for for over 36 hours.
Last year she did not migrate until 26th August
but with her youngsters fledging over a week
earlier this year, we were wondering whether she
would depart earlier this time around.
10
August: Bigger and longer flights
The two juveniles
have been spending longer periods away from the
nest, though they keep returning there to pick
up food provided by their father, 03(97). They
have been seen coming back to the nest site wet
- they may have tried fishing or perhaps it is
just bathing - and have also been seen trying to
gather nest lining material from the ground in
front of the nest.
05(00) has continued to
take time off, disappearing for days at a time.
Sometimes she still tears fish up to feed the
juveniles, but they really don't need her help
now and her role is virtually over for another
summer. |
The
two juveniles, maroon AA and silver AA,
side by side on the nest |
The
young Ospreys vociferously demanding yet more
fish |
16
August: 05 seen for the last time
05(00) returned to
the nest site today. This proved to be her
farewell apearance and she left the family to
make her own way back to Africa.
29
August: the rest of the family leave
too
On 28 August, the
juvenile female with the silver ring was last
seen, flying southwards at 13:20. She was
followed the next day by her brother with the
maroon ring. He left at about 08:30 and
sometime during that day 03(97) was seen for the
last time too.
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