2025 Ospreys

 

2025 Ospreys

Osprey (Pandion haliaetus)

Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

I haven’t looked at all the UK sites, but this year seems to be a better year for Ospreys than 2024. The Loch Arkaig pair, Louis and Dorcha, hatched three eggs, but one chick perished, cause unknown. The remaining two osplets look healthy and vigorous.

In Manton Bay, in Rutland, the nest site has been occupied each year by the same female, Maya, since 2010. An experienced parent, she has raised four chicks this year, with the mate she has had since 2015.

The Poole Harbour ospreys have also successfully raised four chicks, but at Loch of the Lowes, both eggs were lost, predated by crows. The breeding pair here was inexperienced.

When the birds depart in August or September for their winter grounds, they do not retain their pair bond. The siblings do not maintain family connections, either. When or if the adults return in March or April, they will go back to their familiar sites and resume their relationship.

Osprey chicks or Osplets, five weeks old

Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

About 70% of osplets will not survive to the age of three, when ospreys start breeding. However, there are now about three hundred breeding pairs in UK, a huge recovery from the extinction they suffered in the 1880s. The first ospreys to return to Scotland arrived from Scandinavia in the 1950s and numbers have gradually increased.

Ospreys are still rarer than Golden Eagles.

Ospreys 2024

 

Ospreys 2024

                                        Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons 

I look in on a few Osprey nests in the UK, with most of my attention on the Loch Arkaig website. This year, Dorcha and Louis are raising three osplets, two hatched on 22^nd May and one today. Many things may happen before they can be said to be safe and out of danger. Dorcha and Louis will share the fishing and feeding. Osplets are not kind to their siblings, and often the youngest and weakest fall prey to vicious bullying.

Maya and Blue, the Ospreys at Manton Bay, Rutland, are raising three chicks, which are now two weeks old. Last year, they successfully raised three, and in 2022, four osplets were reared.

                                         Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons 

Meanwhile, the Osprey pair in Poole Harbour have four eggs to hatch.

                                                Osprey eggs 

Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons 

 Sadly, the nest at Loch of the Lowes has seen tragedy. Lassie laid three eggs and she and Laddie had to protect them from intruders. Laddie disappeared at the beginning of May and his body was found later. Lassie continued incubating the eggs, but eventually, a young and inexperienced incomer destroyed them and appears to be trying to form a partnership with Lassie.

                                        Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons 

It is sad to see such events occurring, but this is Nature and we are only onlookers.

                                     Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons