This year’s second Osprey Morning was again a great success. On June 29, thanks to 41 observers stationed mostly in the Trois-Lacs region with a few also in the Aar and Doubs river basins, we discovered that at least five Osprey are spending this summer in the Three-Lakes region. It shows once again how a simultaneous observation covering as many spots as possible (26 in total) helps to better understand the real situation, especially at a time of year when many birders are off on holiday or up in the mountains.
The first Osprey was heard at 05:09 at Hagneck, Lake Bienne, where one was later seen at 06:58 (and identified as Arthur F12). Around the Fanel area in the north-east of Lake Neuchâtel, there were a number of participants triangulating between the jetty of the Thielle, the ALA and Nos Oiseaux observation towers, and the jetty of the Chablais du Cudrefin. They saw their first Osprey at 05:24 (eating a fish), which was then lost from sight at 05:44. Between 06:20 – 07:36, either the same individual or another was seen, again eating a fish, while a second Osprey was spotted from 07:25 – 07:40. Since Arthur was then at Hagneck, we were up to a total of three. At 07:57 a blue-ringed male (most likely Racine F29) was seen perched, and from 08:38-08:44 he made 8 half-hearted fishing attempts and was mobbed by a Common Tern and a Black Crow, before being lost from view at 08:55, flying towards Le Landeron.
Back to Hagneck, a big surprise was to suddenly see two Osprey together: Arthur defending his territory against an intruder which arrived at 09:17, and which turned out to be Racine. Given the timing, it means that the bird seen flying from Fanel towards le Landeron at 08:55 was almost certainly Racine. Regarding the other Osprey seen at Fanel at the same time, we think it was an immature unringed female, which has been observed several times with Racine since June 4.
Meanwhile further south-west in the Grande Cariçaie, five other teams recorded two different Osprey: Olympe (F28) and an immature unringed female. Olympe was first seen at 05:38 in a display flight with a fish in his talons. A similar behaviour was seen again at 08:28, when he brought the fish he was carrying to one of his nests, where an unringed female was then seen eating it nearby at 08:42. So two birds were definitely counted in that territory, just like during the last Osprey Morning on June 15. But the big question remained: was this female the same one seen at Fanel – at the same time as Racine – until around 07:40, and which might have moved south-west to join Olympe an hour later? Or are there actually two different unringed females in the region, as we have been suspecting for quite some time already?
Fortunately there were three other teams spread around Lake Morat, and one of them spotted an Osprey (being chased by a Yellow-legged Gull) over Salavaux at 08:42. Definitely not Olympe or “his” immature unringed female, nor Arthur or Racine. A possibility is that it was the unringed female which had left Fanel in the meantime, or maybe even, although less likely, another individual. So the results of this second Osprey Morning seriously support our suspicions that at least two unringed females are discretely spending this summer in the Three-Lakes region. An impression further reinforced on June 30th, when Racine was seen perched next to an unringed female, in a place where one team had spent the morning of the 29th without seeing a single Osprey!
Big thanks go to all the team, including of course those not lucky enough to be at sites where Osprey were seen. Since we can never predict where one (or two) Osprey might turn up, and the species never seems to do the same thing from one day to another, it is crucial to cover as many observation spots as possible at the same time. It is also fundamental to start the watch at dawn, to increase the chance of seeing the birds catch or eat their first fish of the day – with the added benefits of escaping a heatwave (very intense on June 29th), and also to observe a multitude of other interesting species.
