This message below has been received from Highland Wildlife ringing by Chris Hooper who saw and photographed the Blue Ringed OSPREY over the Westhay reserve earlier this week. An interesting insight into young Osprey behaviour!

” Thank you very much for reporting your sighting of Osprey blue/white FF8 at Westhay yesterday. This is a male Osprey that was originally ringed as a chick at a nest in Perthshire in 2014. However it spent much of last summer at Ogston reservoir in Derbyshire. It will be interesting to see whether it it seen at Ogston again this spring, or whether it simply returns to Scotland. Many young Ospreys summer south of their natal area as two year-olds, but then go further north as three year-olds. “
Thanks to Chris for sharing this information.

This evening there were 20 Pintail on 20 Acre Lake - a record number for me at this site, around 50 Shoveler made the majority of remaining ducks, there were a couple of pairs of Teal skulking about in the channels, hopefully these will stay. The highlight however was a pair of Garganey in front of new raised hide, only seen once in an hour watching, they swam across the channel and into the right hand reed margin and didn’t show again, a first for me at Westhay.
Driving home saw 3 different Barn Owls, one on a gate rail at Tealham Moor, a fly by at Vole Rd, Mark and the last one on a fence Post at Pill Road, Rooksbridge.

An Osprey wearing a Blue Ring (Highland Ringing group Scotland ) was photographed (not by me unfortunately) over the Westhay North Hide at 1300 today. The details have been forwarded to the Ringing Group!

28-03-2017 A gloomy morning for my London Drove visit was enlivened by the sight of a Great-white-Egret perched at the top of a bush preening,little more of interest so came home.
Video of the G-w-E and photos.
http://jamesgibbs6929.zenfolio.com/p577876181#h868b2186
http://jamesgibbs6929.zenfolio.com/p577876181#h868bc0e5

26-03-2017 This mornings highlights from Westhay NNR,

A Barn Owl seen making an early morning flight between Daggs Drove and London Drove, Pair of Little Grebes nest building,male and Female Marsh Harriers very active,Sand Martins or maybe Swallows but to far away to be certain,G-c-Grebes finally put in an appearance after two and a half hours of waiting, they then started nest building,suddenly the work stopped,two Otters were the cause.
Peacock Butterflies seen along London Drove.

http://jamesgibbs6929.zenfolio.com/p577876181#h865e8293 Little Grebe.
http://jamesgibbs6929.zenfolio.com/p577876181#h865e8295  Otters.
http://jamesgibbs6929.zenfolio.com/p577876181#h865e8294  Otters.

Lots happening at London Drove this morning,a pair of Bitterns made an appearance and crash landed into the reedbed,  after several moments one bird, presumable the male decided to take a look around and climbed up to the top of the reeds where it perched for several minutes, the two then flew off, one bird returned some time later,a video of the Bittern can be seen on the link below .
Marsh Harriers male and female very active, a little Grebe passed by several times and a pair of G-c-Grebes gave a display of spring time enthusiasm not once but three times,Bravo,see Video, Pintail. Shovelers,Gadwall and Tufted Ducks on show.Cetti’s warbler,Robins, and Coots all enjoying a fine spring morning.

http://jamesgibbs6929.zenfolio.com/p577876181#h86507657 Bittern video.
http://jamesgibbs6929.zenfolio.com/p577876181#h8651dec1  G-c-Grebes.

Unusual Canada Goose seen at London Drove.Juvenile bird ? or part Leucistic ?
http://jamesgibbs6929.zenfolio.com/p577876181#h85687da5
http://jamesgibbs6929.zenfolio.com/p577876181#h85687da6

I was on the reserve this afternoon from 13.30 until 16.00 and visited the new hide for the first time. Around 3 o’clock a female Marsh Harrier appeared and perched in a bush for about thirty minutes in all.  During this time a male flew in and attempted to mate but seemed to be rebuffed and flew away. From an overheard conservation it was possibly not his first attempt today! The female stayed put for another ten minutes or so, calling frequently, before leaving.
On the other side of London Drove there were perhaps a dozen Pintail( certainly a minimum of 8) and three Goosanders.

London Drove.07-03-2017
I weed if you weed,a nice weed display by a pair of G-c-Grebes also
One Buzzard, two Tree creepers ,three male Goosanders, pair Pintail,pair of G-c-Grebes plus one single,Pair Little Grebes, two G-w-Egrets ,one Shoveler, Raven croaking.
Tadham Moor.
Herons nest building, one Buzzard.
Video of dancing Grebes and Little Grebes pictures.
http://jamesgibbs6929.zenfolio.com/p577876181#h84f507eb
http://jamesgibbs6929.zenfolio.com/p577876181#h84f5377d
http://jamesgibbs6929.zenfolio.com/p577876181#h84f5377c

In addition to Robins “dancing” Grebes a single Grebe hoping for a mate,plus a pair of Grebes at Lake hide,a single on the Private fishing ponds.
Short Video of Grebes displaying plus Goosanders. http://jamesgibbs6929.zenfolio.com/p577876181#h84c8315b

A truly fab morning at Westhay (04/03/2017)  - So many signs of Spring (well worth a trip to see for yourself)

Drumming Great Spotted Woodpecker, Laughing Green Woodpecker
A Sparrowhawk using a new hunting technique of hover and dive in an attempt to flush out the Snipes and then catch one. Sparrowhawk gave up after 4 attempts!
5 Buzzards in an ascending spiral.
Greylag Geese being driven off by first Swans and then Canada Geese. Clearly territories have been divided and so will be protected.
Pairs of Kingfisher.
Pintail Ducks showing well
1M + 3F Goosanders still on 20 acres
2 “pumping” Bitterns.. Not quite in full Boom yet
Great White Egret
Lots of ducks paired up and going through their courtship display along with mating.
Tufted ducks - constantly on the move. Far more Males than Females
but no sign of a Marsh Harrier

and finally the best Weed Dance I have ever seen from a pair of Great Created Grebes.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/4/3685/32865908540_71342e2954_b.jpgThe Perfect Weed Dance by Robin Morrison, on Flickr

A trip to a largely frozen Westhay produced 2 M & 2 F Goosander on 20 Acre Lake (west of London Drove) together with a dozen Wigeon and Shoveller with 50 or so Teal standing on the ice!  Plus 6 Swans that were keeping a small patch of water open.
S.W.T.‘s Phillip together with 3 trusty volunteers have today done an excellent job by clearing the bushes that were obstructing the view over that lake from the raised screen on the RHS of London Drove ( a very handy viewing spot especially when it’s raining!).
Other sightings from London Drove and the most excellent new North (Tower) Hide included Bittern, Marsh Harriers, Reed Bunting , Kingfisher, Cetti’s Warbler, Chiffchaff, Wren, Ped Wag and Water Rail. A Skein of 55 Greylags also flew round a few times calling and eventually landing on the ice just to the west of the Lake Hide where half a dozen Snipe were keeping a very low profile at the base of the reeds on one of the islands