OSPREYS carry more than the
weight of a fish supper in their steely talons.
Generations of conservationists
have had their hopes held firm and fast by these modern-day phoenixes with
their story of resurrection from the flames of persecution and blind hatred.
Like many hook-billed,
broadwinged birds of prey, ospreys were anathema to the huntin’ and shootin’
set who cursed their immaculate fish-catching skills in waters reserved for
rods and flies.
As brave men were falling on the
pock-marked landscape of the Somme, so did the fortunes of the osprey on
British soil.
With bounties placed on the
osprey’s head by country estates, along with further harrying by egg robbers
and skin collectors, the fish-hawk ceased nesting on our shores in 1916.
An exciting new project has seen
eight osprey chicks making their maiden flights over the harbour’s waters in
recent days
Its renaissance some 40 years
later, culminating with the arrival of three chicks at Loch Garten in 1959
under the watch of the RSPB, is hailed as one of the great conservation success
stories of the age.
Since then, the osprey’s fortunes
have been as buoyant as its flight.
Tens of thousands of bird lovers
have paid homage in pilgrimages to the Highlands as the number of nests have
risen to treble figures.
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