BIG Surprise- OSPREY!

30/08/12

We had just left Grimley, having had a decent session there, with the Great Egret, Little Egrets and Godwits, when i recieved a text from the local news source, Birding Today, stating that an Osprey was showing on the Sailing Pool right now!

 

Knowing migrant raptors, i 'knew' this bird wouldnt stay around for long, expecting it to fly off about 5 minuites later, so we decided to just head back to my Nans, so i could have a shower, and get some work done!

 

What i didnt not expect however, was the almost constant stream of texts being recieved, "OSPREY still on SP". "OSPREY STILL!"

Once i'd gotten out of the shower, there were even more texts on the same subject on my phone! Its been two hours, how is it still there!?

 

Eventually however, enough was enough, and my dad offered a quick run out to the Sailing pool in the vain hope it'd still be there!

It was a nervous drive, almost fully expecting the bird to have gone by the time we arrived, however, it was very relieved to recieve text's from 'Gertatron' of it's continued presence, He'd seen it finshing!

 

We had just gotten to the A38 'island', and i got another one "Still here".

Pulling into the car park, there was a very decent gathering of locals who had came to admire the bird. I jumped out of the car before it stopped moving, grabbed my scope and bins, and walked the mammoth 10 metres to the twitch, and within seconds, i was onto the adult OSPREY, perched up in the Education Reserve. I've only ever seen a couple of Ospreys, both flyovers, and both very brief, so it was great to be able to admire this bird as it preched, preened etc untill dark.

 

The light was already dropping as we arrived, but i got some recognisable footage/Photos.



Osprey is a great county bird, and to have one stay (even for as long as it did up to this point) is mind blowing, and not a very common occurance.
Another example of how unpredictable nature is. And thats why we love it right?

While watching the Osprey, the entire crowd had lost sight of the juvenile BLACK TERN that was on the pool earlier in the day, and it was only a very brief cricle of the pool at about 7:30pm that saw me seeing this bird.

Two great birds, and one i'd have never expected to stay around long enough to be 'twitchable'. How wrong i was.....
MB