Weedon’s World
Ospreys (plural) have featured heavily in Mike’s recent birding
Ospreys feature heavily in Mike’s recent birding
Afew months have passed since I last updated you, dear reader, with respect to the progress of my year list (the one around the Peterborough area, of course). Well, it is now early October and my 2019 total (so far) is on a very decent 187, exactly the same as it was at this time last year (my record year, when I got 195, you may recall).
In the last month or so, I have added a few welcome waders, including my first ever locally ‘found’ Curlew Sandpiper; and early morning ‘vis mig’ sessions at Ferry Meadows CP (not far from the BW office), have bagged me a year-tick Crossbill.
However, first came my 183rd year tick: Osprey. I saw my first 2019 Peterborough area Osprey almost precisely 375m from my home (in fairly central Peterborough), on the morning of 2 September.
I had just started cycling to work and had reached a T-junction, when I noticed a lot of racket coming from gulls overhead. Naturally, I did what any sensible birder would do and pulled over to look up.
It isn’t often that hunches come to exact fruition, but my internal monologue went as follows: “those gulls sound like they are mobbing something, perhaps even an Osprey. Ooh, an Osprey!”
It was right above me, though quite high, and drifting slowly south (presumably migrating), trying to ignore the gulls. I whipped my camera out, but just couldn’t lock the focus on the bird. Still, what a thrilling start to the working day, and one of the most exciting bird finds I have had this year.
A couple of weeks later (Sunday 15 September), I was in south Lincolnshire, driving along the road we birders call the Deeping High Bank (though it may really be called Welland Bank), between Crowland and Deeping St James, when up from low above the adjacent River Welland flew an Osprey. I pulled over and jumped out to (successfully) blast it with my camera. It was an unringed juvenile bird, as confirmed by the photos, and rose up and drifted roughly west, towards the pits around the village of Maxey (over the river in Cambs), 10km away.
Two weekends later (29 September), our local bird news WhatsApp group flagged up that there were two Ospreys at Maxey pits, and it would have been rude of me not to go and have a look. When I got there, one of these beauties (a scaly juvenile) was still about, eating the last part of a fish, on the bare branch of a lonestanding oak, by one of the pits; giving possibly the best scope views of an Osprey I have ever had in England!
After a quick preen and snooze, it flew north, almost over where I was standing, and once more I was able to take a few photographs. And this is where the story becomes interesting, as, thanks to the power of modern digital photography, I was able to compare the underwing pattern of this Osprey with the one I had seen a couple of weeks earlier. And, as it happens, it turned out to be just about a perfect match: it was demonstrably the same individual Osprey which had been around for at least two weeks.
And this juvenile was still around this weekend
(I saw it on 6 October). But there is another twist to the story. While I watched the Osprey yesterday, naturally I reported it again on the WhatsApp group and this may have encouraged one or two others to go for a look. And what they reported was very interesting.
Firstly, there was a report of an Osprey very close to the one I’d been watching, but with a distinctive ‘gap’ in the primary feathers of the right wing. Then, a report came of two Ospreys being seen in the air together, also at Maxey. So, perhaps, both of the Ospreys reported on 29 September were still around. And, as it happens, an Osprey fitting the description of the gap-winged individual had been seen and photographed within a few miles of the site on 21 September. And, in the ongoing WhatsApp discussion, the first finder of the two Ospreys at Maxey confirmed that one of those had the distinctive gap-feathered wing.
We are living in an era, when, by the power of modern photography, we can know with confidence so much more about birds, how long they hang around, how many individuals are involved, and so on.
All this adds a little extra frisson to day to day birding, though, with magnificent, super-exciting Ospreys, that is hardly needed…
THose gulls sound like THey are Mobbing soMeTHing... ooH, an osprey! Mike Weedon is an very keen patch lister and keen wildlife photographer in his home city of Peterborough, where he lives with his wife, Jo, and children, Jasmine and Eddie. You can see his photos at weedworld. blogspot.com