Osprey and little grebe

Kalasääski – Pandion haliaetus from Veli Pohjonen on Vimeo.

This is an osprey video.

Today to the Naardermeer, the oldest nature reserve in the Netherlands.

At the new visitor centre Stadzigt, many barn swallows. Some flying; scores of them sitting on a leafless tree. Over a dozen also sitting on one side of the roof of the boathouse.

Arrowhead and grass rush are both still flowering, though probably not for a long time any more.

When we arrive at vantage point Muggenbult, an osprey flying overhead to the south.

Great cormorants sitting on poles in the water, drying their wings.

Two adult great crested grebes with two juveniles. The juveniles can fly and dive already. However, they still have stripes on their heads, and still beg for food from their parents with high-pitched voices.

Also, a dabchick or little grebe, diving frequently and swimming among the coots.

Further away on the lake, scores of mute swans and two black swans.

Then, again an osprey flying south.

Fifteen minutes later, again.

Then, a female marsh harrier.

Then, again an osprey going to the south.

Obviously, we are seeing northern or eastern European osprey autumn migration. But did we see four ospreys, or always the same osprey, flying in circles around the reserve? A warden thinks we have seen the same osprey several times. In autumn, migrating ospreys do not travel as fast as in spring when the nesting season is near. This morning, the warden had seen an osprey eating a fish (though the Naaardermeer does not have very many fish).

On our way back, many dragonflies and three butterfly species: small tortoiseshell, speckled wood, and map butterfly (of the second, summer, generation). And a juvenile white wagtail.

In the Spanderswoud nature reserve, quite some fungi, including sulphur tuft.

Scotland: Young Osprey found injured in Cathness confirmed shot: here.

3 Ospreys shot in UK: here.

September 2010. The marsh harrier – a bird of prey rarer than the golden eagle in Britain, has bred in Cheshire for the first recorded time. The harriers – with a wingspan of nearly four feet, have nested at a secret location in the Gowy & Mersey Washlands, south of the Mersey estuary: here.

This is video of a solar powered water device near Stadzigt.

Related articles

• Osprey spotted hunting on the Mersey
• Osprey to be placed in Lake hack box
• CL&P Saves The Ospreys
• Spring Has Sprung, The Grass Has Ris, I Wonder Where The Osprey Is?
• Birding After Work
• Osprey crash landing
• Bald Eagles versus an Osprey
• Ospreys over the” border”.