Ospreys

 

Ospreys (Pandion haliaetus)

Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

The ospreys are returning to their UK nesting sites.

Rutland, Poole, Dyfi, Loch Doon, Foulshaw Moss, and others have all recorded ospreys arriving. Some still await their mates, while others are already mating. Some nests are currently unoccupied, as in Loch Arkaig, but this might change in the next few days.

For those who follow the birds, it can be an anxious time, wondering if the ones they watched in 2025, and often in years before, will return this year. Then there are the weeks of watching and waiting and hoping that breeding will be successful and the young birds will survive.

Eggs and baby birds are at risk from predators like the white-tailed eagle, large owls and corvids, and pine martens. Older, stronger siblings will often bully younger chicks, not allowing them to feed. The weather can also be a factor. Driving rain and fierce winds can chill eggs or chicks quickly, particularly if both parents are hunting for food. Sometimes, one of the parents dies, and it is extremely difficult for the surviving bird to source enough food for the chicks and itself. Exhaustion can be deadly.

Rutland Water ospreys at Manton Bay have been successful for thirty years, raising multiple broods of three and four. Ospreys in other locations often struggle to bring one chick to maturity.

They are stunning birds and there are a number of videos on YouTube – just make sure you get the birds and not the Welsh rugby team in Swansea!

Historically, ospreys have been known as sea hawks, river hawks, or fish hawks. They became extinct in Britain in 1916, but careful reintroduction has seen them increase from two breeding pairs in 1967 to over three hundred pairs in the twenty-first century.

Ospreys remain rarer than golden eagles in the UK.