After being in England for a few days, I went round the local ospreys this afternoon. Morven was feeding her large single chick and several times it spread its wings and flapped; it won’t be long until it flies. Nimrod is busy hunting for fish and has at least one young, but on several recent occasions when I’ve tried to see how many, it’s been raining so the chick or chicks have been laying flat in the nest. Beatrice has two young and they have been flying for some days. Just like last year, her behaviour has dramatically changed in the last week, and surprisingly for a female osprey she has been leaving the nest to catch fish. But for her it’s not local, she’s been flying to Speyside and fishing along the river Avon, and on three nights she’s actually roosted there as well – she must be getting fed up with being hassled by her large chicks, when she visits her nest. I guess it won’t be long before she leaves on migration. I also checked out Findhorn Bay, and there as the tide went out, there was a male osprey eating a flatfish on a log out on the mud flats – when the males start spending more time down in the bay it’s an indicator that their chicks are close to fledging or are free flying around the eyries. The ospreys season marches on.
Unringed male osprey eating flatfish, Findhorn Bay
