Amazing Osprey News (1 Viewer)

[Tiger_mz]

This has just been posted on the Rutland site. It raises the intriguing possibility that ospreys came from America rather than Norway!


The following paragraph was recently found in an old paperback:
Places to Fish in Britain and Ireland, by W. E. Davies (Eliot Right Way Books, 1953).

Before we leave Inverness-shire, it is interesting to note that a few years ago, that great naturalist, Captain C.W.R.Knight, brought from Gardners Island, off the eastern end of Long Island, two pairs of ospreys, which were released on an island in a loch some miles from Inverness. The place where they released is where the last British ospreys nested, nearly forty years ago. My hope is that those individuals with itchy trigger fingers think twice when they meet this beautiful fish hawk.​

Can anyone shed any more light on what may well have been the first attempt at Osprey translocation.

 

[carol poole]

ospreys

i have heard of this release but i think it was a lot longer than forty years ago and as far as i am aware these birds did not return to scotland. the birds where released on one of the big lochs north of the great glen not in speyside. the same man i think released white tailed eagle in west perthshire well before the attempt on fair isle but these birds quickly disappeared though some years later a well known bird photographer while in a hide watching a golden eagles nest on a remote part of the coast did see an adult white tailed. so possibly a lone bird my have survived. going back to osprey before the loch garten birds where present ospreys where around a site in aberdeenshire and later three or four where seen together in the same area, though no nest was found or did they return the following year

 

[Tiger_mz]

i have heard of this release but i think it was a lot longer than forty years ago and as far as i am aware these birds did not return to scotland. the birds where released on one of the big lochs north of the great glen not in speyside. the same man i think released white tailed eagle in west perthshire well before the attempt on fair isle but these birds quickly disappeared though some years later a well known bird photographer while in a hide watching a golden eagles nest on a remote part of the coast did see an adult white tailed. so possibly a lone bird my have survived. going back to osprey before the loch garten birds where present ospreys where around a site in aberdeenshire and later three or four where seen together in the same area, though no nest was found or did they return the following year

Well remember the book is dated 1953 so we are talking about it happening around 1950.

There was an interesting bird programme last November which dealt with pre-1954 sightings of ospreys.

It is still available at:

http://db.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/birdboys.shtml

 

[s.g.]

And what a great program it is, thanks again to John Barclay for putting me onto it.

S. G.

 

[DSpeight]

As far as I am aware, this episode took place in the 1930s and you can check out the details on http://www.esmondknight.org.uk/Captain Knight.htm. This is dedicated to the actor Esmond Knight but there is a page devoted to Captain Knight which refers to the American Ospreys.

I have a beautiful copy of "Aristocrats of the Air" written by Captain Knight in 1925 with photos taken on heavy plate cameras. The fieldcraft needed to take these pictures is unbelievable (and probably illegal!) today. You sometimes wonder how much things have improved??