The summer osprey are back in the west hills of downtown Martinez. (Remember the false alarm “eagle nest” in the football field last year?) The Osprey roost in the evenings in a large dead tree near the top of green street and fish during the day at the Marina. When I get home at night I can hear their piercing chirp to each other. Sometimes if I imitate it just right I can lure their flight circles right over my house. Jon saw the young one begging for food from mom in the air over the beaver dam. (Don’t worry about our kits, though, these are strictly fish eaters!) If you’ve never had the remarkable sighting of an osprey catching a fish check out the video below. Imagine how much better it gets in the middle of a lake of forlorn and unlucky fishermen.
A wildly beloved female osprey “Lady” is the oldest known Osprey in the UK and has returned every year to her webcam nest to raise 56 off spring. This year she got very ill, and supporters worried she would die with no new eggs, or not survive to see the offspring fledge. Her rally to health was celebrated accordingly.
An osprey thought to be just hours from death a few weeks ago has survived to see her chicks leave the nest.
The first fledging took to the skies at the Loch of the Lowes centre in Perthshire on Sunday morning, the Scottish Wildlife Trust said. The second made its first flight at 1000 BST on Monday. The chicks’ mother, a 24-year-old osprey called Lady, suffered a bout of ill health in June. Experts feared the bird would die when she stopped eating.
But thousands of webcam viewers witnessed her sudden recovery days later.
Female ospreys live an average of eight years and produce about 20 chicks in that time.
But Lady – the oldest breeding osprey in the UK – has produced 56 eggs and has now seen 48 fledge.
The bird has developed an international following through the webcam trained on the eyrie throughout the breeding season.
Wildlife centre manager Peter Ferns said: “We are overjoyed that our female breeding osprey has once again been successful in producing and raising chicks which have fledged the nest.
“This is the 20th consecutive year we have watched over this bird at Loch of the Lowes and it’s certainly been one of the most dramatic.”
Mr Ferns said it was an “emotional moment” for staff at the centre and webcam viewers when the chick fledged.
He said: “A few weeks ago we didn’t think we would see this day after the female became so ill. Since her remarkable recovery, she has amazed us all again with her tenacity and dedication to her chicks.
Sound familiar?
