Saturday 2 April 2011

Osprey: Garden/Patch/Year/Lothian/Lothian-self-found Tick!

Just putting the last of the sets into this year's onion bed when I thought I'd have one last look for Osprey overhead. After all, they are moving North in good numbers across the country at the moment and I reckon that any that happen to come in from the direction of the Pentlands could be tempted to head towards Alnwickhill Water Treatment Works before maybe heading towards Duddingston Loch. That flight path would bring them into view from the garden. Of course, many a futile moment has been spent searching the sky for this erratic migrant over the last few years, but today, at last, I struck gold with one almost directly overhead dwarfing the nearby gulls.


Having confirmed the ID with through binoculars, I dashed to the house and bellowed "Osprey!" and grabbed the SLR. The bird was moving North rapidly in a fast glide and while G got onto it with the bins it was already a mere large dot to the naked eye before the kids got into the garden. At this point it was being harassed by a gull (sp?) and with a few powerful strokes headed over in the direction of Blackford Pond before apparently turning to power across Edinburgh city centre. A great bird - not bad to get a self-found county tick from the back garden!


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