O IS FOR OSPREY
AN OSPREY PLUNGING TO CATCH A FISH IS EDGE-OF-THE-SEAT STUFF – UNBEATABLE WILDLIFE DRAMA.”
T his April the osprey is one of six iconic reintroduced species to grace a special new set of Royal Mail stamps. Yet its dramatic Scottish comeback in 1954, when a pair nested at RSPB Loch Garten reserve, was actually natural – the Scandinavian birds had been passing through the Highlands on migration. So, too, was the eventual return of nesting ospreys to Cumbria in 2001. But as the ‘fish hawk’ might easily have taken 150 years to re-colonise the entire country on its own, birds were also reintroduced further south at Rutland Water. When the young unpaired ospreys hatched at Rutland wandered in search of new nesting areas, they speeded up the resurgence elsewhere.
The latest osprey reintroduction project is at Dorset’s Poole Harbour, where eight Scottish chicks were taken last year; another 14 will be translocated this summer. “Male ospreys first breed when four years old, females at three,” says Tim Mackrill of the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation, which is overseeing the scheme. “So realistically, 2021 is when we’ll first see breeding at Poole. It could eventually support up to 10 pairs. And it’s strategically placed to boost colonisation of the whole south coast and areas like the Somerset Levels.” GET INVOLVED World Osprey Week is 12–18 March: www.ospreys.org.uk/ world-osprey-week