Osprey on the way to Asda

I'd just got home from an early morning visit to the flash when I got a call from Bill at 9:15 informing me that there was an osprey over East Bay. Having had some decent views over the past week I didn't feel the need to rush back, but waited until I'd got my shopping list together and was ready to head to Asda which would take me past the entrance to the flash! 

I arrived back at the main car park at about 9:45 and saw the osprey through the trees even before I'd parked the car. I walked down to the shoreline and joined a couple of other birders who were watching it and stayed until about 10:25 when the bird flew right over our heads and was lost behind trees. I left then to do my shopping, but messages from John who arrived after I'd gone confirmed that the bird was still present up until at least 11:00 when it was seen to head towards Lightshaw.

This is clearly the same bird that was present on Tuesday, you can see the damage to the tail which is obvious in photos from both days. This bird is an adult and probably a female.

Further analysis of photos from last week confirm that it is a different bird from the two which were present between 4th - 7th. One of those birds was clearly a 1st summer while the other, which I didn't see, looks like an adult male and has damage to a primary feather which is not evident in the photos from this week. The bird which I saw on 24/04/2026 is a different bird again, so that's at least four ospreys at the flash so far this year, two of which have stayed for a couple of days or more, quite unprecedented.

Todays bird was present and flying up and down the flash for nearly two hours this morning, and for a good hour and a half on Tuesday afternoon, while last weeks 1st summer bird was on view at the western end for over three hours on the 7th. Most sightings of osprey at the flash are just flyovers, with birds present for just a few minutes, and before this year I'd only ever seen two at the flash.

There was a lot of cuckoo activity today with at least three birds on site, two males and a female. This bird was the most vocal and the most visible, I heard it first calling from the direction of the Charlie Owen hide, then it flew calling over Horrock's hide and out over the flash before circling round and heading over to the ruck. At some point over the flash it was joined by a female.