Site B Nest in 2008

The male Osprey 03(97) has bred at Site B every year since 2001 and has now fathered 15 youngsters. All but one of these have come from eggs laid by 05(00), his mate since 2003. One of their chicks, 5N(04) bred successfully on the Lyndon reserve at Rutland Water in 2007.

The nest was built by 03 in the top of a dying oak tree and is on private land away from the reservoir itself. It cannot be seen from any public path or road.

18th June

With three hungry mouths to feed, 03 is having to work harder than ever - spending many hours each day searching for fish.

He is continuing to catch up to five fish every day - mostly roach and trout. Unlike during incubation, he usually delivers the fish straight to the nest, and the photo on the right shows him arriving with a newly caught trout.

When 03 arrives at the nest with a catch he usually hands it straight to the female. However, on this occasion, he actually offered fish to his mate; a tender moment, helping to strengthen the pair bond.

Now that the chicks are over three weeks old, 05 sometimes allows her mate to feed them. Here the three youngsters can be seen waiting intently as 03 tears up the trout.

The chicks are growing fast and becoming increasingly active. The photo above and on the right shows the largest of the three stretching its downy wings. The flight feathers are the last to develop and will not be fully-formed for another month.

Male Ospreys are generally much 'cleaner' on the breast than females, and the plumage of the Site B pair illustrate the difference nicely. In the photo on the left you can really see how much more heavily marked 05 (left) is compared to her mate. Not all pairs contrast so markedly though- some males are more heavily marked than 03, making them appear more like females.

After delivering a fish to the nest, 03 often spends half an hour or more drying his wings like a Cormorant. No one dive for a fish is the same - sometimes the birds merely pluck the fish from the surface of the water, but other times they almost fully submerge. On the later occasions they need to ensure they are completely dry before their next fishing attempt.

11th June

Great news! Over the past few days we have been getting tantalising views of the chicks, and are delighted to report that there are three healthy youngsters in the nest. Although only two weeks old, the chicks are already very mobile -scuttling across to the female when 03 delivers a fish to the nest. The oldest of the three is just starting to develop feathers and already has the characteristic eye stripe. It is noticeably dominant over its two younger siblings, pecking aggressively at them at feeding time. 05 though is now a very experienced mother, and ensures that all three chicks receive their fair share of fish. Not that they are likely to go hungry anyway - on Sunday 03 brought five fish back to the nest.

Osprey chicks gow incredibly quickly - within the next fortnight their wings will have started to develop and by the 30 days of age they will have reached 70%-80% of their total body weight.

3rd June

Spurred into action by the arrival of his chicks, 03 has upped the fishing anti, delivering at least two fish to the nest each day. Within a week of hatching it is usually possible to see the chicks over the edge of the nest, but this year the nest cup is particularly deep, meaning we probably won't know how many chicks have hatched until late next week.

The photo on the right shows 03 resting near the nest after yet another fishing trip. 03's white underparts help break up his outline, making him surprisingly difficult to see when sitting quietly near the nest.

26th May

Without the of a camera looking down into the nest, the best means of identifying that hatching has occurred at an Osprey nest is to look for changes in the adults' behaviour. Throughout incubation barely a second passes without one of the adult birds sitting tightly on the eggs. However as hatching approaches and the young start to call from inside the eggs, the adults become more restless, sometimes standing up and looking down into the nest cup. Incubation usually lasts between 35 and 40 days, and so by Saturday - day 35 of incubation at Site B - anticipation had grown and we were watching 03 and 05 closely for signs that a chick may have hatched.

The first signs that hatching may have been imminent came on Saturday night; the nightwatchmen on duty reported that the female was restless for much of the night, frequently standing up and looking down into the nest. Our suspicions grew further when, at 12 noon on Sunday, both adult birds stood on the edge of the nest for more than ten minutes, looking intently into the nest cup (see photo on right).

Perhaps triggered by what he had seen, 03 then flew off towards the reservoir in search of a fish (see photo on left). Heavy rain must have made fishing difficult, but after two and a half hours he eventually returned with a large trout. After consuming the head himself, 03 finally flew to the nest with the remains of his catch at about 5pm. During incubation this would prompt a change-over, with the female flying off with the fish and the male settling down on the eggs. However this time the female carefully took the fish from her mate, and, after swallowing several pieces herself, very delicately offered a piece down into the nest. After 36 days of incubation, it was clear that the first chick had hatched!

19th May

When is 03 not 03? In recent days there has been something a little different about 03...the photo on the left shows what it is, but can you work it out...?

As regular visitors to the website will know, all of the Ospreys at Rutland Water are fitted with colour rings as chicks. This enables us to identify them in later years, and monitor the population in detail. Occasionally birds loose this colour ring, and that's exactly what has happened to 03. So in future years we will have to rely on the fact that he still has a metal ring on his right leg, and also a very striking head pattern.

13th May

Over the past three weeks 03 and 05 have continued to incubate with the female undertaking over 70% of the sitting. Occasionally they are disturbed by intruders - this morning 5N was forced to chase a particularly persistent Buzzard -but generally peace and tranquility reigns at the nest.

22nd April

Less than three weeks after returning from migration, 05 has laid a clutch of eggs and the long incubation process is underway. The first indication that the female had laid came on Saturday afternoon when 05 was observed sitting low in the nest, in the classic incubation posture. Confirmation that she had laid a full clutch came a few hours later when 03 returned with a fish. After eating the head he carried the remainder of his catch to his mate and took over incubation duties, as shown in the photo on the right.

It is interesting that 05 laid eggs at least four days earlier than 5N, despite returning almost a week later than the young female. Having raised fourteen chicks in the past five years, 05 is now an experienced breeder and it's clear that she gets into 'breeding mode' much quicker than 5N.

15th April

Over the past few days the cold weather has made fishing extremely difficult for 03. In cold conditions fish become less active and often favour deeper water, making them difficult for Ospreys to catch. With 03 often absent from the nest for prolonged periods as he struggles to make a catch, 05 has resorted to accepting fish from displaying non-breeding males.

The photo on the right shows 05 carrying off a fish presented to her by 09(98).

Shortly after 05 returned to the nest with 09's fish, her mate finally arrived back with a catch. Unusually the fish proved to be a Zander.

Zander were introduced into eastern England as a sport fish, and are thought to have been present in Rutland Water since the late nineties. Despite this, this is the first time we have recorded any of the Rutland birds catching this elusive species.

8th April

Over the past few days 03 has continued to add sticks and turf to the huge nest. This nest building sometimes continues long into the evening, as the photo below indicates.

Happily for 03, 05 has become more receptive to her mate's courtship in the past few days, so with any luck they may begin incubating within the next two weeks.

4th April

After a day of sporadic nest-building, at 3:40 this afternoon 03 suddenly took off from the nest and began to display high above. Perhaps he had seen a female? Sure enough, a minute or so later a second bird appeared from the south and landed on the nest...it was 05(00), 03's mate of the past five years!

The photo on the right shows the moment 05 landed on the nest after her long flight from West Afrcia.

Spurred into action by the arrival of his mate, 03 continued to nest-build for much of the evening, taking numerous sticks and clumps of turf to the nest. Like 08 in Manton Bay, 03 carried some extremely long sticks to the nest; the one in the photo on the right probably measured over six foot in length. Certainly it's the longest one we've ever seen an Osprey carrying!

30th March

Over the past few days, 03 has spent most of his time resting on the nest tree, waiting for 05 to return. Last year she returned on 3rd April, so we are hoping she may return any day now.

With just himself to feed 03 has been catching a single fish each day, on this occassion he flew back to the nest with partly eaten trout.

Over the past few months, Ravens have become an increasingly common sight in Rutland and on Saturday the bird in the photo on the right attempted to rob 03 of his fish.

28th March

At 9:30am 03 returned to the Site B nest having just completed his tenth spring migration. Assuming he spends the winter somewhere on the West African coast, he will now have covered somewhere in the region of 60,000 miles on migration since his first autumn flight in 1997!

Upon arrival 03 was forced to evict 09(98) who arrived yesterday morning and had spent the day at Site B. Despite the fact that 09 had defended the nest against a passing migrant Osprey the previous day, he quickly relented upon sight of 03 and retreated to his own territory.

Since his return, 03 has been sheltering from heavy rain, but in the next few days he will need to do some serious gardening work to the nest. As the photo on the left shows, an amazing amount of grass is growing from the centre of the nest. 03 and 05 line the nest with turf each spring, and it seems that last year's lining has taken a liking to the growing conditions in the nest!

09 lands on the Site B nest - notice the grass growing in the centre!