Osprey at Thorney Island

Thursday 22 September 2022

There were so many recent reported sightings of Osprey on Thorney Island that I decided to make the 100-mile round trip to twitch this particular favourite of mine.  

It's ironic that I have not seen one at Weir Wood Reservoir this year even though there have been umpteen sightings - sometimes when I have been on site doing the snake surveys.

This time my luck was in.  

First stop was to walk from the car park down to Eames Farm and look over the Great Deep. 

•  Within minutes I picked out an osprey flying high in the distance.  It plunged down into the water below, presumably to catch a fish, before climbing then heading away from me in an easterly direction.

I then walked back to the car park, headed off east along Thornham Lane and then took the short path from Thornham Point to the gated entrance to the MOD land.  From there I could see right over the Great Deep from the easterly vantage point.

• It didn't take long to locate an osprey, maybe the same one I saw earlier, on a post next to one of the floodlights off to my right.  I was able to watch this bird for almost 15 minutes as it perused the area around it.   It took flight, passing over me, headed down Thornham Creek , before turning east and out of sight. 

An easy twitch. 

I was surprised that there were no other birders around.

Year total = 207