An Osprey Nest for Knepp

So why do we have to build a platform for an osprey? Why wouldn't an osprey find its way here on its own?

therein lies a story so we know that young ospreys and they live an incredible lifestyle so a young osprey fledges from a nest and just at this time of year we've got ospreys fledging around the country and in a few weeks time they begin that long arduous migration to West Africa the vast majority of ospreys from the UK go down to West Africa some stop in Spain and Portugal but most cross the Sahara They then stay in Africa for 18 months and they don't come back until they're two years old.

But when they do come back, they're not yet able to breed, but they're on a reconnaissance mission.

They're trying to find out where there are nesting ospreys.

Most male ospreys are sight faithful, so they tend to return to the area they fledged in.

But we know that there are some individuals who, for whatever reason, might be genetic, maybe some other cause, are what we call pioneering birds who will disperse much further.

And those individuals will typically, rather than build their own nest, they like to take over one that's already there.

Now, the problem with ospreys in England is there's no recent history in many places of them breeding because it's a bird that historically... was widespread.

Shakespeare refers to them, there's loads of historical documents that indicate they were common and widespread but like many birds of prey they were persecuted and they were eradicated from England in 1847 and so although they've now returned to the Midlands around Rutland Water there's a small but increasing population in Dorset where we ran the reintroduction project and there's other pairs in Cumbria and Northumberland There are no ospreys in this part of the country, and so therefore no recent history and no nests.

But these youngsters, they are coming back looking for nests.

So what Roy Dennis and others have found is that in Scotland, erecting artificial nests in areas away from the core breeding areas has been a really effective way to encourage the geographical expansion.

And so the idea with today is to find a spot... where we can build a nest and you have to really imagine you are an osprey.

You have to become an osprey and think, what do they want? And hopefully find a location to build a nest that then looks like an osprey has built it itself and that therefore this must be a good place if you're an osprey to breed.

So when you get these young ones coming back as two-year-olds, and I know you had one of these birds here at NEP last year, they're learning that ah there's a nest there and then they'll go somewhere else and they might find another one but they're learning and they're mapping out where all these sites are and then when they come back as a three-year-old or a four-year-old when they're more intent in breeding they'll remember those sites and they will potentially go back and settle there in order to establish a territory so Yeah, that's the aim.

So we're thinking like an osprey or trying to.

It's

been amazing thinking like an osprey or at least following you thinking like an osprey this morning and looking at all these completely different trees and looking for exactly what will make a good nesting platform.

And so here we are standing at the bottom of an oak tree.

Can you explain what you're looking for?

Yeah, so the tree that we've identified is in a quiet part of the estate.

on the edge of a bit of a block of woodland.

But what an osprey wants is it wants a nice open view.

It doesn't necessarily need to be the tallest tree, but it does need to have an open view on, let's say, 75% of the area around the nest.

they do like to be prominent they like to have a nest if you think about buzzards or red kites they're often nesting lower down not in the top of the canopy there's maybe two-thirds of the way up a tree right in at the trunk whereas an osprey likes to either be in the top of the tree or certainly in the prominent location on the tree so we've been going around the estate and obviously there's so thought it's not going to be hard to find a suitable tree at net because you've got so many fantastic oak trees But quite often with an oak tree, if there's no dead in the top of the tree, the canopy is just too dense and you're not going to be able to get a suitable nest in.

But we found this tree, which has got some dead branches in the top, which means the canopy is more open.