After Arthur (F12) on March 25, Olympe (F28) on April 1, and Racine (F29) on April 17, Taurus (PS7) was the last of our four males from last year to be confirmed back in the Three-Lakes region. First observed on April 22 at the lake of Morat by Mateo Cerantola, he may well have returned earlier, having been very discrete with only a few observations of him fishing at Fanel.

The only male that we don’t have news of to date is “cross-border” Flamme (ex-KF6), who has not yet been seen in the Haut-Doubs (nearby France). Let’s hope that he didn’t have a problem in his wintering grounds or during migration. If he has moved his territory by a few km (like he did between 2021 and 2022), we may still receive news of him later this season.

The big news this spring is that at the start of May we had an unringed female join one of our territorial males. She was seen in his company for at least three days (see photo above, the pair in display flight), with him bringing her fish to a nest where we even observed them mating: a first since the beginning of the project! Considering the rather late time of her arrival, it could be her first return from Africa, in which case she would still be too young to breed.  She hasn’t been seen again in the past few days, but may either still be discretely in the region, or else has continued her migration. In any case the excitement of seeing an Osprey pair getting so serious has just been extraordinary.