Page 7 - BBC Wildlife Volume 36 #04

300 The approximate number of pairs of ospreys CHRIS
S
now nesting in Britain. The species was driven to
extinction as a breeding bird in Scotland in 1916,
PACK
KHAM’S
having been exterminated in England by 1840.
MUST
T-SEE
Q BEHAVIOUR
O IS FOR
OSPREY

hisApril the osprey is one of six
iconic reintroduced species to
Tgrace a special new set of Royal
Mail stamps. Yet its dramatic Scottish
comeback in 1954, when a pair nested at
RSPB Loch Garten reserve, was actually
natural – the Scandinavian birds had
been passing through the Highlands
on migration. So, too, was the eventual
return of nesting ospreys to Cumbria in
2001. But as the ‘fish hawk’ might easily
have taken 150 years to re-colonise the
entire country on its own, birds were also
reintroduced further south at Rutland
Water. When the young unpaired ospreys
hatched at Rutland wandered in search
of new nesting areas, they speeded up
the resurgence elsewhere.
The latest osprey reintroduction
project is at Dorset’s Poole Harbour,
where eight Scottish chicks were taken
last year; another 14 will be translocated
this summer. “Male ospreys first breed
when four years old, females at three,”
says Tim Mackrill of the Roy Dennis
Wildlife Foundation, which is overseeing
the scheme. “So realistically, 2021 is
when we’ll first see breeding at Poole.
It could eventually support up to 10 pairs.
And it’s strategically placed to boost
colonisation of the whole south coast
and areas like the Somerset Levels.”

GET INVOLVED World Osprey Week is
12–18 March: www.ospreys.org.uk/
world-osprey-week

AN OSPREY
` PLUNGING TO
CATCH A FISH IS
Watch osprey
clips from EDGE-OF-THE-SEAT
INCREDIBLE STUFF – UNBEATABLE
ANIMAL
JOURNEYS WILDLIFE DRAMA.”

BBC Wildlife 7