Trossachs Bird of Prey Trail, The Trossachs Stirling, United KingdomOspreyhttp://www.birdofpreytrail.com11:13 05-Sep-2010OSPREY When is it here? Between about April and September. The rest of the year the ospreys travel to West Africa and slightly warmer weather! How easy is it to see? Ospreys spend a lot of their time fishing, so if you share the same passion, you stand a good chance of seeing one! They can also be seen flying over the road on their way to one of the area’s many lochs and rivers, or perching high in trees.
How big is it? Medium - large What colour is it? Males and females are very white underneath, but are darker brown on top. They have a distinctive black eye stripe around their heads. What might I confuse it with? Buzzards. See the buzzard page for how to tell them apart. Where are they? Near bodies of water, in particular the Lake of Menteith and Loch Venachar. You can watch a local osprey nest live on camera at the David Marshall Lodge throughout the summer months. What are they normally doing? The camera on the local osprey nest has caught many osprey dramas over the years. From infidelity to oustings, and even the collapse of the nest itself!
Most of the squabbling goes on in April when the birds are just returning to the area from Africa. Ospreys prefer to use the same site over and over again, and good locations are often fought over. Things tend to settle down in May, when the female will lay her eggs. A few weeks of waiting and between 1 and 3 chicks usually hatch out. The male spends the rest of his summer bringing fish back to his growing family, as the female tenderly feeds her chicks. By September, the chicks are huge and the female will leave them to fend for themselves. The males usually hang around, bringing the occasional fish back to the nest until the chicks are ready to tackle the world on their own. Away from the nest, one of the most incredible sites you can see is of an osprey plunge-diving for fish They won’t got under the water completely, but will grab their prey and then flap madly to get airborne again. Ospreys can sometimes be seen to hold their wings in an odd ‘bent’ fashion, which can make them look a little like giant lapwings! |