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Close Encounters of the Osprey Kind...

3K views 23 replies 12 participants last post by  tenet 
#1 ·
I was on our club water today. We've had ospreys nesting on it for over 20 years now, and I've had plenty good looks at them and taken a few decent photos of them as they come and go. However, I have never got anywhere as near to one as I did today. I was making my way across the water at the start of the day, on the Minn Kota. It was mirror calm and I was concentrating on watching for risers. There were quite a few of them in the open water. So, I was not watching where I was going. I wasn't going to run into anything away out in the middle. But then something caught the corner of my eye, and here's an osprey, half-submerged, struggling to get airborne with the fish it has snagged.. and I'm bearing down on it! I swerved to avoid it, and it put in an extra effort to get itself out the water and into the air before this eejit in the boat mows me down… :oops:

And he made it, and was away off. Closest I have ever been to an osprey by some margin! I think we now have 2 pairs, with one nesting away to the east side somewhere. That was where he headed, not to the usual nest on our west shore. Later in the day, there was a stushie between 2 ospreys, with one chasing another one around and around for quite a while. Might have been a turf war thing?



Col
 
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#6 ·
I think it's a second pair back there. Been seeing 3 or 4 adults early in the season for a couple of years now. I saw a second rainbow go skyward later in the day yesterday, and that one wasn't going back to the nest. That might have been a fledgling or just the adult feeding itself. The stushie might well have been the parent trying to shoo the fledgling away to fend for itself.

Col
 
#8 ·
They are fabulous birds. Many years ago, in the 70s we'd see migrating birds at Ravensthorpe and one of the best experiences I've had is seeing an Osprey take a fish some 30ft or so from my float tube at Rutland. The last time I was able to be out in the tube, at Elinor last month, the regular Osprey visitor was there and took a fish, a perch I think, not too far away.
 
#12 ·
We are blasé here as well. There are about 4 pairs on the Lake of Menteith, 2 pairs on our club water, multiple pairs at Loch Leven, and you see them on the majority of Scottish trout waters. It surprises me they still get labelled rare birds, because I'm guessing they must be round about the natural carrying capacity here now? Numbers probably increased above that in some places due to stocking of waters?

We have had our club water since the 1960s, and ospreys chose to come and nest on our shore 20 or so years ago - and have returned every year since. So, they obviously don't mind us being there fishing, and they obviously don't mind us stocking the water for them. ? And yet, a few years ago, the RSPB tried to get the police onto us to tell us we couldn't fish there because there were ospreys nesting! ?

The only time I have noticed the adults can get a bit antsy with you is if you take your boat close to their tree just around the time the young are fledging. The adult will come out and fly over your head and give a series of short repetitive whistles... "Just letting you know you are a wee bit close for my liking... " And if you move away, they settle back down again.



 
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#13 ·
One of the problems for them now is the size of the stockie rainbows most places use. A lot are on or above their maximum payload. They get a right good ducking when they take on a 2 to 3 lb class rainbow. I watched this one at Carron Valley a couple of years ago and he really struggled to get himself up and out the water with his catch...







That one above is about what confronted me yesterday. You can see how I nearly ran it over without seeing it!

He got there after about a minute or so...



Wasn't even a particularly big fish...



Been seeing more and more fish with marks that can only be from a failed osprey attack.
 
#16 ·
This is what I'm getting at, Jim. They have gone from being a rare bird to being one that has to defend its territory against rivals. Surely you are not rare when you are doing that?

Col
 
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#17 ·
I agree..and also agree that the anglers in boats do not faze them in the slightest.and as for the RSPB.if it was not for stocked fisheries we would not have anything like the numbers we have.but as usual it's a head in the sand attitude(pity they dont think that about cat's)

Jim
 
#18 · (Edited)
Aye, here is its official conservation status...



Least concern.

Thousands of species deserving of attention due to being rare. Osprey - it was a big thing years ago - coming back from extinction in our isles. But we've got it back. And that's great. And it gets on fine with us. Time to get over it and move on to other projects... :whistle: (In Scotland, anyway...)
 
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#19 ·
I was having a slow day on the dries at Lochend one outing not much showing and no birds (swallows martins) feeding and noticed 70 yards to my left an osprey took a fish out in the open water, half an hour later it took another from what looked like the same spot, that was my swallow/swift/housemartin follow the feeding birds moment.

I motored over to around the same spot, and had a good bit of sport, probably stealing the Ospreys next meal. :oops:

They can also be a great pointer on where fish are cruising or mulling around near the surface, fantastic creatures.
 
#20 ·
I tried looking up their numbers. From what I found, I drew this graph...



The figure for 2021 said between 200 and 250 pairs, so I put in 225. It looks like the curve might be flattening out? I wonder if this is an indication that they are approaching their maximum numbers? I couldn't find any figures for historical numbers before persecution wiped them out. If they approach equilibrium in Scotland, it might mean they spread out naturally to the rest of the British Isles??? :unsure:

Col
 
#21 ·
They have them on plywood platforms on telegraph poles down south. They are good at moving in on something provided as a nest heap starter. Not renowned as good builders apparently. By St Mary's Loch we put a board on a tree with a branchwood mess on top and plenty splashings of Dulux white gloss around it. Straight on next spring !!
 
#22 ·
We have a strong population of osprey and bald head eagles. In air, territorial disputes over estuaries are common and fantastic to watch. One river I fish has an eagle that soars high until an osprey dives for a fish. He will then harass the smaller osprey until it drops it's catch and scoop down to catch it and feed his nest.
 
#23 ·
I tried looking up their numbers. From what I found, I drew this graph...



The figure for 2021 said between 200 and 250 pairs, so I put in 225. It looks like the curve might be flattening out? I wonder if this is an indication that they are approaching their maximum numbers? I couldn't find any figures for historical numbers before persecution wiped them out. If they approach equilibrium in Scotland, it might mean they spread out naturally to the rest of the British Isles??? :unsure:

Col
A few years back I talked to a man who lived outside Lairg. He told me that he knew of a successful breeding osprey pair through the 30's, 40's and 50's. In those days with communication and photography of the time I saw no reason to doubt him.
 
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