Caught on Camera

Sitting perched on the post guarding her nest, with Burleigh House as a magnificent backdrop, the pair of ospreys are now a familiar sight around Rutland Water.

The web cam is neatly attached to the pole and focuses on the nest sending the pictures back to the Visitor's Centre. By September the young ospreys will head south on their first migration and the majority of Rutland ospreys winter in West Africa and may not return to their breeding site for several years. You can follow their migration on satellite tracking.

The birds at Rutland have originally come from a trans-location project from Scotland back in 1996 and it has been a resounding success. In 2013 there were 5 breeding pairs and 14 fledged young. They can live well over 25 years! Not surprisingly they found the local trout farm which has got in on the act and built a hide for photographers -- if you can't beat 'em join 'em! I personally went to a hide on the Nature Reserve on the water so was able to see the nest here and other water birds making this their home. Using a 700mm lens this is heavily cropped too so you can see they were quite distant!

I went on an osprey cruise this evening and saw one fishing in the distance - lovely to see!

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