In celebration of the Osprey

You may remember that a couple of months ago a young female Osprey appeared at Ferry Meadows CP in Peterborough and was identified as a bird that hatched at nearby Rutland Water in 2013 and had a blue ring on her right leg bearing '3J'. This bird entertained us for a month, making regular forays over the lakes from her chosen roosting grounds of the nearby Milton estate and regularly catching fish. I even managed to get a few reasonable photos of the bird. 3J left Ferry Meadows around the 13th/14th June and was then seen at Rutland Water, in fact, she was seen at the nest where she was hatched. Yesterday (25th July) she was seen and photographed at Glaslyn, near Porthmadog in North Wales. She must be looking for somewhere to call home.

Earlier this year, 3 Ospreys were hatched at the Manton Bay nest at Rutland Water (the nest where 3J entered this world) and earlier this month one of those chicks became the 100th Osprey chick that has successfully fledged at Rutland Water since their re-introduction began. What better excuse is needed to show you some more photos of 3J that I had the pleasure of taking when she was delighting all at Ferry Meadows?!

More of the Ferry Meadows Osprey

Osprey at Ferry Meadows CP, Peterborough

This Osprey has been seen around Ferry Meadows for at least the past week. The bird has been seen fishing on both of the larger lakes at the park and with photos by Mike Weedon showing a blue ring on one of its' legs the people from nearby Rutland Water Ospreys came on Wednesday of this week to see if they could read the ring and possibly identify the bird. They were successful by reading the ring as saying 3J, showing it to be a female bird hatched at the Manton Bay nest of Rutland Water in 2013. This is the birds first return to the U.K. after spending her time in Africa and she has chosen to spend a bit of time in the local area, very decent of her! Time will tell whether she will move on to Rutland Water or elsewhere, until then she is proving to be a very popular bird with the visitors to the park and I may try and get some more photos in due course!

Being 'mobbed' by a Carrion Crow, showing the enormous size of 3J

Osprey

The Osprey is making a welcome comeback in the British Isles. After being persecuted to extinction as a breeding bird by 1916, this bird started to re-colonise itself with a pair breeding in 1954. After a faltering start due to egg collecting and continued persecution, the numbers of this bird have gradually grown to number over 150 pairs, still a very small number when you consider that Golden Eagles number over 450 pairs. These birds are still persecuted with individuals being shot or 'disappearing' from breeding areas. One individual at Rutland Water 'disappeared' last year after having mated and started to raise young, it was feared that he was shot.

In the Peterborough area the sighting of these birds is pretty much an annual event, with birds passing overhead in the Spring and Autumn. Some even hang around for a while, favouring a lake from which it fishes before moving on. This is in part due to the close proximity of Rutland Water, one of the sites where a re-introduction programme was started in 1996. The bird in the photos below show an individual that has been hanging around for a while now and was seen by myself at Maxey GP on Sunday. I thought that I would get some shots using my new camera and some using my trusted digiscoping method. You can see the difference in results for yourself. The first two are with the Canon Powershot SX40 HS with the other two being digiscoped.

The shots with the new camera were taken with the lens at full 35x zoom, with the digiscoped images using my scopes 30x eyepiece. I am happier with the 'camera' photos, but to be honest, not truly happy with any of them! The bird was a bit distant and the heat haze was pretty horrible, but then again I am not complaining about a bit of heat haze!