Why do we believe that we now have Osprey chicks on the nest?

1.    On Saturday 31st May at 16.15 the male Osprey brought a large Perch onto the nest. Up until this time the female normally took the fish away to eat in a tree. Ospreys are very clean birds and don’t tend to dirty the nest with food etc. This time the male flew off without the fish. The female stayed on the nest with the fish. Change of behaviour number 1. Why?

2.    During the last week of May the male Osprey was bringing to the nest approximately two fish a day. Yesterday he was seen to have brought six fish into the nest. On Monday he caught four fish within one hour. His rate of fish catching has doubled if not tripled this week. Change of behaviour number 2. Why?

3.    Up until Thursday 29^th May the adult Ospreys were in constant attention around the nest. On Thursday the male was seen sitting on a post near the patch of water on the marsh called the Scrape. He stayed for nearly an hour. He repeated this the two following days. He did the same thing in 2007 the three days before the eggs hatched. Why?

There are other signs like movement around the nest and head bobbing.  We think that the answers to all the questions above are that we have a chick on the nest. Do we have one, two or three? We do not know because this year the technology is not in the right place and we cannot see into the nest. This year we rely on the good old bird watching skills of observation and logic. When we know how many chicks we have we will let you know. Watch this space or listen to Osprey watch on Radio Cumbria at 2.15 on Thursday afternoons. or even better come and see for yourself.