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Bassenthwaite Ospreys 2016 (1 Viewer)

HelenB

HelenB

Opus Editor and Expat from Cumbria
Opus Editor
The 2016 season begins on Saturday, 26th March - Easter weekend.

Number 14, from the 2013 season, has spent the winter again on the island of Bioko, south of Nigeria.

The tracker on last year's chick, VO, sadly stopped working in December 2015, either due to a malfunction or the death of the bird. His last location was in Senegal.

Last year there were 6 nesting pairs of Ospreys in Cumbria!
 
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Here's a link to the OspreyWatch website.

There is also a Facebook page, which anyone can access. You don't have to be on Facebook yourself. There is no 2016 news there yet!
 
The project is reporting the female KL returned to the nest on 25th March and the unringed male returned on the 28th March. They seem to have paired up and there is a project again this year. There is also a 3rd bird in the area. Looking good.
 
Great news: KL laid her first egg on 12th April.

And White 14, KL & Unring's chick from 2013, has left his wintering grounds on Bioko and is heading north right across the Sahara. It looks as though he is aiming for Tunisia, as he did last year, before crossing the Mediterranean.
 
Second egg seen this morning.

White 14 has crossed the Med and is over Italy, near Genoa.
 
Anyone wanting more details of the Osprey Watch site at Bassenthwaite and the Whinlatter Visitor Centre, please check out the Bassenthwaite Lake page in BirdForum's Opus section.
 
Today, 18th May is the day that the first laid egg should start hatching! The Osprey watchers were able to see a small hole in that egg when KL moved off the nest for a moment, so hopefully by the morning of Thursday, 19th May we will have the first chick hatched, successfully.

Check out the write up on the OspreyWatch page.
 
Very sad news from the nest - Monday 23rd May

The 3rd chick hatched overnight but at 8:20 this morning, was snatched from the nest by a Magpie when KL was leaving and Unring was not near enough to do anything to stop it. Unfortunately the Magpies hung around all day harassing the parent Ospreys and finally managed to take chick number 2 just after 5pm.

This doesn't look good for chick no. 1.
 
I know it's only nature but I really dislike magpies. When I was a youngster many years ago, every garden had a blackbird and song thrush nesting in it and you never saw magpies. Now, some gardens have blackbirds and hardly any have song thrushes.

For the first time in around 20 years I have both nesting. The other morning I heard a lot of alarm calls and magpies had taken all the eggs from the blackbird nest. The week before the same had happened to the song thrush nest. On both occasions there were 4 or 5 magpies attacking the nest.

There are too many of them. There is a place for all species but songbirds are really struggling whilst magpies are increasing out of control.

Really sad news about the Osprey chicks

Is it time for a legal cull?
 
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Parryman1 said:
I know it's only nature but I really dislike magpies. When I was a youngster many years ago, every garden had a blackbird and song thrush nesting in it and you never saw magpies. Now, some gardens have blackbirds and hardly any have song thrushes.

For the first time in around 20 years I have both nesting. The other morning a heard a lot of alarm calls and magpies had taken all the eggs from the blackbird nest. The week before the same had happened to the song thrush nest. On both occasions the we 4 or 5 magpies attacking the nest.

The are too many of them. There is a place for all species but songbirds are really struggling whilst magpies are increasing out of control.

Really sad news about the Osprey chicks

Is it time for a legal cull?
Click to expand...

No, but feel free to do whatever you can to the swine who illegally persecute the BOP that would control Magpie and other corvid populations.

I daresay your Blackbirds were inexperienced and placed their nest too accessibly: breeding is a learning experience. First timers get it wrong. You cannot - must not - divide wildlife into good animals and bad animals, which is what you are doing by disliking Magpies that are doing what comes naturally.

John
 
You are of course right John. Waders are amongst my favourite birds yet I marvel at a lone Peregrine repeatedly stooping into a mixture of disturbed waders splitting them until it identifies a target.

It's not so much the magpie I dislike, more the increasing number of them that is altering the balance. If they were taking rich land owners game bird chicks I'm sure they would be shot along with our BOP if they are not being already.
 
The Osprey chick is now 2 weeks old and doing very well since there is no competition for the food!
 
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