Roy Dennis MR OSPREY
He’s the man who pioneered reintroducing birds of prey into the British countryside – John Miles meets the legend that is Roy Dennis
Roy Dennis, MBE. Mr Osprey. Grandfather of White-tailed Eagles. Which do you prefer? These are all titles that Roy Dennis holds, but he’s much more than that, as he explains in his new book, Restoring the Wild.
He has methodically kept a diary all his life, and many details from it shine through in this book.
I’m fortunate to have known Roy from my time working in Speyside back in 1980, but of course Roy’s career goes back much further, with his love of wildlife starting in his boyhood. There’s a lovely photo of him aged 11 in the book, holding a Shelduck duckling and a tame Jackdaw.
As a Boy Scout back in 1953, he travelled to Wales with the pack in an Austin 7, to get a glimpse of what was then a very rare bird, the Red Kite, up in the hills around Tregaron.
And as a teenager, Roy would leave his home in Hampshire to catch the ferry across to the Isle of Wight, before hitching
a lift to the cliffs of St Catherine’s Point, where he’d watch for migrants flying in over the English Channel. He also visited the cliffs at Culver, near Sandown, where the last White-tailed Eagle to nest in the south of England was found in the 1780s.
White-tailed Eagles would be more than just a dream to Roy, and how amazing must it have been to be the warden on Fair Isle at the age of 18, and back there for seven years when the first eagle reintroduction was taking place in 1967. Certainly for Roy, it was an ‘in the right place, at the right time’ occurrence.
George Waterston, the director of the RSPB in Scotland at the time, wanted to bring four young eagles to reintroduce them back to Scotland. This scheme did not work, but the knowledge Roy gained helped the 1975-1985 scheme be the one to finally get these eagles breeding again in Scotland.
This time, the reintroduction started on the island of Rum. Roy’s knowledge of the release cages built on Fair Isle came in very handy, and his good friend John Love took the role of eagles’ keeper. The birds spread out from Rum, and no one knew where the first successful nest would be found; but after several attempts, the glory went to Glen Forsa, on Mull, in 1985.
A special day
The 4th of July was described as “one of the special days in my life” by Roy, as he flew from Inverness to the Outer Hebrides and met up with Eagle Star Insurance (now sponsoring the reintroduction), RSPB council members and director Ian Prestt. They then flew to Rum to see the newly-arrived young eagles for release, before continuing on to Mull to see this first successful nest. The first 10 years of breeding were slow, so another 60 young were released around Loch Maree, adding to the 82 from Rum, and 85 were released in the east of Scotland. It was 1998 before the first Scottish-bred eagles actually themselves bred. But, by 2020, Scotland was proud to have 140 breeding pairs, even on Hoy in Orkney and down the east side of the country, including nesting in the Cairngorm National Park, with the National Trust for Scotland claiming a pair in 2020 on Mar Lodge.
When I rang Roy to discuss this article, he’d just been away building an Osprey nest, at the tender age of 81! In 1992, he was awarded an MBE for services to nature conservation in Scotland; and in 2004, was voted the RSPB Golden Eagle Award winner as the person who had done most for nature conservation in Scotland in the last 100 years. Amazing!
I’m sure most of you know Roy for his
HE WAS KEEN TO SEE RED KITES BACK IN SCOTLAND, AND THE FIRST REINTRODUCTION OF THIS SPECIES WAS ON THE BLACK ISLE
Osprey work. It was ‘right time, right place’ again, as Roy got the chance to protect some of the first nesting Ospreys in Scotland, back in 1960.
That man George Waterston gave Roy the job as Osprey Warden at Loch Garten (a job I did 20 years later), and Roy spent four years there before returning to Fair Isle for seven years, with his wife Marina.
Then it was back to the mainland with Marina and their three children to take the new Highland Officer job for the RSPB. This gave him a huge area to cover, working with species such as Golden Eagle, Black-throated Diver, Slavonian Grebe and many more. Osprey nest building went alongside nest-boxes for Goldeneye, which both species subsequently enjoying increased breeding success around Scotland.
He was keen to see Red Kites back in Scotland, and the first reintroduction of this species was on the Black Isle, with birds brought from Sweden. Roy had made some great contacts over in Scandinavia, and the first ‘free flying’ Red Kites were released on 20 July 1989. Sadly, the success of these birds was always threatened by the use of poison for removing unwanted species on shooting estates, but a hardcore of breeding birds remained in the area, with more releases in Perthshire and Dumfries and Galloway.
THE YEAR 1999 WAS THE START OF A BIG LEARNING CURVE, WHEN OSPREYS WERE FIRST FITTED WITH SATELLITE-TRACKING DEVICES
The Rutland reintroduction
After 21 years in this job, Roy went self-employed, setting up the Highland Foundation in 1995 to branch out into working with species that he always dreamed would be brought back to live in the wild in the UK. This later changed to the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation, as his work became more international.
His connections brought him close to species such as European Beaver and Eurasian Lynx in Europe, as well as Arctic Wolves in Greenland. I asked him which job would he have loved to have had, to make all these reintroductions work more smoothly, and his reply was: “dictator”!
The licensing of reintroductions and all the paperwork surrounding it was slowing up the process, which led to the creation of the Rutland Osprey Project. In June 1996, following 18 months of negotiation, a licence was granted by Scottish Natural Heritage, allowing for up to 12 chicks to be removed from a choice of 35 nests in the eastern Highlands of Scotland.
English Nature (then, now Natural England) was also included, as the birds would have to be held captive on the reserve for a few weeks, involving more licences. Over a number of years, a total of 64 birds were brought down, with the first breeding birds in 2001 rearing a single chick.
This was the same year Ospreys nested at Bassenthwaite in the Lake District, and a pair were shot on the River Eden in Cumbria.
The Rutland reintroduction was being observed by many European countries, and Roy was now in demand to ‘kickstart’ plans for returning Ospreys to breed in Spain and Switzerland. He also gave support to get Ospreys in Italy and Portugal, and Poole Harbour is now the latest reintroduction of Ospreys in the UK.
Ireland also wanted to get in on the act and, with Roy’s help, Golden Eagles were brought from Scotland, while White-tailed Eagles were transported from Norway.
Tracking movements
The year 1999 was the start of a big learning curve, when Ospreys were first fitted with satellite-tracking devices, so that the full migration and wintering areas could be monitored. The results also found the movement of birds out into the Atlantic, some of which sadly never reached land. Of course, it was not just Ospreys that benefited from the project – Roy had several species fitted with the devices, including Golden Eagle,
White-tailed Eagle, Honey Buzzard, Red Kite and even Peregrine.
A sad tale came when two of his Peregrines visited former nesting cliffs around an area that Roy knew very well. The cliffs were on Red Grouse moors, and it was suspected that the previous birds had been shot off to protect the grouse. These two individuals did not last long, and the Peregrine is one of the least often satellite-tagged raptors in the UK, so the true extent of this problem is not yet clear.
On the other hand, Golden Eagles are well monitored, especially those breeding in the Cairngorm National Park, but sadly the same story has been told, as birds have disappeared on the moors used for rearing Red Grouse.
Roy’s book brings things right up to date, with the latest reintroduction of White-tailed Eagles to the Isle of Wight getting full public attention. For once it is not for the negative response from
ROY RECEIVED AN AMAZING 70 EMAILS OF SIGHTINGS OF HIS BIRDS FROM AROUND ENGLAND
landowners, but for the massive joy the birds are bringing to an increasing crowd of onlookers away from the island. The birds are spreading their wings and travelling to counties where this lost bird has not been seen in centuries.
In one weekend (20-21 March 2021) Roy received an amazing 70 emails of sightings of his birds from around England. These, of course, could be backed up via the satellite tag on each of the reintroduced birds. Even in what many people would call ‘no go areas’, with Red Grouse moors all around, Roy’s birds were staying and feeding on Rabbits. Local birders were monitoring the birds but, as Red Grouse was not on the menu, the birds stayed to enjoy the feast. Could this reintroduction plant the seed that raptors are not for removing?
Back on the Isle of Wight, one immature pair bucked the trend and stayed the entire time on the island. These were the birds that could produce the best results for determining what they were eating, and the answers were especially welcome, as fish appeared high on the menu. Carrion was well-known, but gulls also appeared on the menu. Some carrion was from dead gamebirds.
So, what about the future of Roy Dennis’ Wildlife Foundation? Roy is now the honorary director and is still building his nests, while much of the work outside Scotland is led by Dr Tim Mackrill, the former Osprey warden from Rutland Water. The foundation relies on grants and charitable donations and, with so much rewilding taking off in Scotland, it may be only a matter of time before we see some large land predators added back into the Scottish landscape.
If there’s one thing that’s for sure, it will be Roy leading the charge to make that happen! And for that, he will probably have yet another name added to the list of Mr Osprey and Grandfather of White-tailed Eagles!