Juvenile Osprey!

Aythya sp/Hybrid at Pett pools yesterday (image by C Turley)

As the weather this morning ruled out any wanderings around The Point, I went to Pett Pools with CT who had seen an interesting Aythya duck there yesterday. On arrival we could not find the bird on the close roadside pit where he first saw it, eventually through the rain we found it at the back of the neighbouring lake viewed from the gate. In the time time we were there it was constantly diving but stayed at the back of the lake the whole time giving poor views in in poor light in poor weather, leaving us none the wiser but assuming some sort of hybrid.

 As I was clearing out the MV this afternoon DB called me saying an Osprey was over Hookers Pit, a quick scan over the fields in front of the house and the bird came into view, thanks Dave for the call. A 3 minute drive to Springfield Bridge  and the bird was now perched on a telegraph pole. A short while later it started fishing appearing to catch and devour 2 small fish, eventually after flying around the peninsular a couple of times it caught another fish which was to large for this young bird to handle. 2 Hobby's were also present and few Yellow Wagtails.

Juvenile Osprey

Hovering

The strike

Struggling with the over size fish

Osprey about to drop its catch

Migrant Hawker Springfield Bridge

Pied Flycatchers

A late afternoon visit to the trapping area found 6 Pied Flycatchers though probably more were present, 2 Common Redstarts, 4 Whinchats, several each of Willow and Reed Warbler, Common and Lesser Whitethroat and Wheatear.