UK wildlife: Conservationist experts celebrate first osprey eggs of the year Leicestershire and Rutland
- Published
Maya has had 37 chicks hatch so far!
The first osprey eggs of the year have been laid at a reservoir in Rutland in the East Midlands.
It's part of an important breeding programme, which saw its 250th chick hatch in 2023.
The two eggs have been laid by osprey mum Maya, who has come a long way for this important job.
She has flown all the way from Africa and reached the UK on 12 March.
The birds come from thousands of miles away to nest in Rutland
Maya is the most successful breeding osprey from Rutland Water, producing 37 chicks so far.
The first egg was laid on Saturday 30 March and the second on Tuesday 2 April, according to the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust.
The eggs take around 35-37 days to hatch, so just over a month of waiting.
Hopefully there could be more to come!
What is an osprey?
Ospreys have brown feathers on their backs and white on their chests.
They have yellow eyes and white heads and a black eye stripe that sets them apart from eagles. The female has more brown feathers across her throat.
They are very good at fishing and are also known as fish hawks.
They migrate 3,000 miles every spring to find food and stay warm.
Why is this breeding programme so important?
An osprey nest has been discovered in County Fermanagh
Many ospreys once lived in the UK.
But habitat loss and hunting led to their extinction as a breeding bird in England in 1847.
Some remained in Scotland where they were last known to breed in 1916.
Now thanks to a lot of hard work from conservationists, ospreys have made a successful return to the UK.
Rutland Water Nature Reserve was the first place in England where ospreys bred in 150 years. Some chicks from Scotland were introduced in 1996 and in 2001.
The project is now doing so well that some of the ospreys are now breeding in other parts of the UK.
How are they tracked?
The ospreys all have special rings carefully fitted to their legs
All of the Rutland ospreys are fitted with two rings on their ankles.
Each ring carries a unique set of numbers or code.
One also has a lightweight satellite tracker so the wildlife trust can learn more about the lives of the birds.
Birds fly to African countries to spend their first year or two as an adolescent, before returning home to Rutland Water to find a nest site.
The project is hopeful chicks will return to breed at the site two to three years after hatching.
