Osprey overhead
We have a visitor. The first I knew of it was yesterday morning when Lee dived out of the French windows, grabbing his binoculars on the way, and stood out in the rain, scanning the sky. His binoculars are an old Russian Navy pair that he picked up in a junk shop in Whitby, and they don’t miss much. After a few seconds he was jigging up and down, and not just because he had no shoes on. Circling overhead was an osprey.
We’ve never seen one up here before, although they are regularly sighted a few miles away at Findhorn. Its crossbow-shaped white wings were hard to spot against the pale grey sky, especially as it was soaring high, much higher than the resident buzzards usually go. We saw it again in the afternoon when we walked up to the loch at the top of the hill behind our house. It was just taking off from a tree and circled around a few times before disappearing over the hills. Lee went up again late in the evening and it was back, fishing for its supper in the loch.
Is it just passing through, or could we have a resident osprey settling here? It appears to be a young bird, so it’s possible it is looking for its own territory. If so I hope it decides to stay. It’s beautiful to watch and makes our patch of countryside feel that wee bit wilder.
August 12th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
How exciting – and how wonderful if it does decide to settle near you. Your location – ticks aside – sounds quite idyllic.
Your site and blog look great – hope you reap the rewards.
August 13th, 2008 at 10:52 pm
Hi Clare, and thanks! The osprey is still around, we’ve been watching it fish up at the loch. I just hope the gamie doesn’t notice it’s pinching all the best stock.
August 13th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
You could always resort to distraction therapy – on the gamie that is! (I’ve heard that Grouse – of the bottled variety – works wonders!)
August 17th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
What a good idea. Or we could try that other type of bottled stuff and send him off to the Glen of Tranquillity.