Osprey At The Mere This Morning

 The week's update has been overshadowed by an Osprey appearing at the Mere this morning. I saw it for about 24 minutes but what a great 24 minutes!

  

I got to the hide and had a look around as usual before getting the bins out and looking more closely at what may be about. A juv Marsh Harrier was nice to see but nothing else caught my eye. 

 

Then a raptor flew into view from my left. I got the camera and found the bird through the viewfinder, by which time it had turned and came over me from the right. 

Osprey first photo at 07:24:57

I later saw that the bird has a darvik ring fitted on its left leg. It also has a small fish in its talons.

 

I was sure it was an Osprey but I had to make sure before letting people know, so I looked at the photos I had taken rather than following the bird in flight.

 

Having confirmed it was what it was, I scanned for it through the bins and found it in a tree opposite the hide on the north side, at the time I didn't know it had caught a fish so it would have been looking for a perch to stop and eat it. 

 

I took a few photos and reviewed them on the camera but still couldn't see that it had a fish. More photos taken and more reviews.

 

Osprey with prey

Meanwhile a couple of Marsh Harriers were making a racket to the left of the Osprey.

Marsh Harriers - no food was involved in this meeting

Back to the Osprey and the first photo I got looked as though it had been disturbed during its breakfast and was watching the harriers.

Osprey absorbed in watching the harriers 

Normal service is resumed at 06:29:12

The next time I picked it up was 06:41 and it was obviously hunting again, circling and hovering.

It made an unsuccessful dive for fish which I missed with the camera, picking the bird up as it left the water.

No fish this time

A male Marsh Harrier came in and attempted to drive it away, to little effect as the Osprey turned for another look for breakfast part two.

Male Marsh Harrier harrying the Osprey

Another dive for fish, this time successful.

Osprey with fish

Final photo of the Osprey at 07:48

I last saw it flying south west, perhaps in search of a tree to perch and eat its meal away from the Marsh Harriers.

In other fishy news, five minutes after the Osprey left, four Common Terns flew in looking for fish, and one was successful.

Common Tern with fish

The week's round up will be posted tomorrow.

Caspian Tern at The Mere

 I can't start this update any other way than with the year's highlight (to date anyway) of a Caspian Tern at Hornsea Mere. 

 

It was sighted yesterday morning (Saturday 25 June) on the spit to the west of Swan Island and stayed until about 12:35, giving reasonable views when it took off to feed. We got a few very distant photos via digiscoping of the bird on the spit.

 

Today however was much better as the bird flew up and down the Mere many times during feeding forays. 

 

Only the fourth record for the Mere and it was popular, with many visitors arriving to see it.

Caspian Tern over Hornsea Mere

Caspian Tern over Hornsea Mere

Caspian Tern flying behind a Common Tern on a buoy

The last image's quality is a bit iffy but I thought I'd include it for size comparison. Turns out the size of the Caspian Tern isn't obvious on this photo 😉

 Also this morning at the Mere a rare Four-legged Black-headed Gull (Chroicocephalus quatropin) made a brief appearance before disappearing into the ether of my imagination 🤣🤣

Chroicocephalus quatropin

This morning started off almost a white-out with thick fog and a cooling north easterly breeze, this was ideal for some atmospheric photos.

Yesterday morning before the Caspian Tern was found, I was watching a few Sandwich Terns off the sea front catching fish. Again they were distant and image cropping was necessary to get a recognisable photo.

Sandwich Tern with fish

The rest of the week was pretty mundane compared to the weekend but a few sightings were captured on the camera. 

Song Thrush

Juvenile Reed Bunting

As above

Sedge Warbler song flight

Sedge Warbler song flight

Butterflies were very well represented through the week with the emergence of Meadow Browns. Large Skippers continue their presence along with Painted Lady and Common Blue.

Painted Lady

Large Skipper

 

 

Large Skipper close up showing a very long tongue

As above

Common Blue

Tufted Vetch is providing the latest new source of food for bees and invertebrates along the Mere south side, as well as looking good.

Tufted Vetch hosting a Common carder bee

Tufted Vetch (Vicia cracca)

I'll close off this post now as there are more than enough photos to cope with for one update. More soon.