OSPREY: fatal greed of a fish eater

SHARP-EYED and deadly, the osprey is a spectacular hunter of unwary fish which make the mistake of swimming too close to the surface.

When a luckless trout or pike rises into view, the osprey plunges down with lightning speed.

It hits the water feet first and will often submerge in its attempt to catch its prey.

When it resurfaces, it needs to frenetically flap its long wings to get airborne again carrying the extra weight.

Once grabbed in an osprey's powerful talons, few fish escape its fatal embrace and most are quickly carried back to a nest or perch to be devoured at leisure.

However, ospreys don't always have it their own way and there is evidence that a few have drowned after miscalculating the size of their prey.

Fish weighing up to six pounds are easily taken but anything bigger can drag an osprey to its doom if it fails to release its claws in time.

Ospreys have been enlarging their UK territory lately.

Birdwatchers were delighted when young were produced both in Leicestershire and the Lake District within the space of a month.

Prior to this, no ospreys had bred in England for 150 years so a measure of excitement was understandable when mottled white eggs were first spotted at the sites.

Security measures were put in force to protect the nests from egg thieves and vandals - a wise move in the circumstances.

Before 1954, when a pair returned to breed at Loch Garten in Scotland and were given RSPB protection, ospreys had been extinct in Britain for over 50 years as a result of persecution by Man.

Now hopes have been raised that these dramatic predators might gradually become a fixture on less remote stretches of water in England where more people can study them.

RSPB conservation director Mark Avery said:"We are delighted that these wonderful fish-eating birds of prey are now breeding again in England. "This is largely a result of the increasing Scottish population spreading over the border. There are now more than 100 breeding pairs in Scotland, thanks to ongoing conservation work."

Ospreys are migrants and come to our shores in March and April after flying all the way from tropical West Africa.

They go back there in October when UK temperatures start to drop. Their navigational skills are extraordinary but, like most birds, ospreys sometimes go slightly off course.

One osprey en route to Scotland caused a flap when it settled exhausted on a Brighton rooftop and had to be rescued from dive-bombing gulls by a fire crew and bird of prey expert.

Taken into protective custody, it was given medical treatment and was soon back on the road to recovery.

Bad news for some unfortunate fish.