This is a very interesting male osprey. Originally, I ringed him on 5th July 2001, a humid overcast day, in a nest on Forestry Commission land near Rothes. There were two rather small male chicks in the nest and this one was ringed with a red/white 7J colour ring on his left leg; his BTO ring was 1367890. His wing was 248mm and weight 1310 grams - he was the larger chick. He was not identified back in Scotland until August 2005, when David Whitaker photographed him on the salt marsh at Findhorn Bay. (This photograph)

In 2007, I found him rebuilding an old osprey eyrie in a very tall Douglas fir which had not been used for breeding since 2002. By the end of last summer, he had built a substantial nest and also attracted a mate. He bred for the first time in 2008 and is a regular hunter in Findhorn bay. This year, I saw him first on 1st April when he was on Logie's nest beside the female osprey Beatrice. I recognised him from his colour ring, red/white 7J, and her from her green colour ring 5B. But she quickly returned to her own eyrie, and he moved a short distance, in the opposite direction, to the nest he built last year. His mate is unringed and they reared three young in 2008.

After many attempts to try to catch a male for satellite tracking, I caught red/white 7J on the Findhorn Bay saltmarsh on 1st September 2008. As I went to take him from my trap, a RAF Nimrod aircraft flew low over my head as it went in to land at the nearby RAF Kinloss airbase. The ospreys know these planes very well and do not even look up, when they are hunting flounders in the bay, even though the massive plane is just a few hundred feet above them. I decided Nimrod would be a good name for red/white 7J - it conveys the meaning "a mighty hunter".

He was in excellent condition - wing 482 mm, tail 215 mm and weighed 1509 grams - he was already getting plump with fat for his migration. With the help of Ian Suttie and Moira Hickey, I fitted a 30 gram Microwave solar transmitter, number 84129. After taking a few photographs he flew off over the bay and heading inland, and the first two day's transmissions showed he returned to his nest and was then tracked hunting in the bay and along the Culbin Bars, and taking fish back to the young at his nest.

In 2008/09, he wintered in Guinea Bissau, after some very exciting migration flights, and returned again in spring 2009 to his nest near Forres. His mate also returned safely and they reared one young. He wintered again in the same place in winter 2009/2010, and returned to breed again in same nest in April 2010.