Three osprey chicks at a South Cumbrian nature reserve have now been tagged.
The chicks, two male and one female, have been officially tagged and weighed at Foulshaw Moss Nature Reserve, and given a coloured ID leg ring.
The two males were named as 7K0 and 7K2, the female as 7K1. The female is the largest, weighing 1.790kg with the two males slightly smaller, at 1.480kg and 1.560kg.
The reason for ringing and tagging the birds is so that conservationists can track their movements and understand their life history. They will soon leave the South Lakeland nature reserve and migrate south to the Iberian Peninsula or West Africa.
Paul Waterhouse, reserves officer for Cumbria Wildlife Trust said: “This has been a very special year for us: for the first time, we’ve had breeding ospreys on two nests at Foulshaw Moss.
“Our ‘regular’ pair, Blue 35 and White YW, who have bred here successfully since 2014, were joined on a second nest by a pair of newcomers, Blue 476 and Blue 717.
“So far only the three older chicks (on Blue 35 and White YW nest) have been ringed and tagged.
“The new breeding pair have had mixed success, which is not unusual in the first year: there is currently one surviving chick on their nest, which will be ringed at a later date, as it hatched later.
“We organise the ringing when the chicks are about five or six weeks old, as they can’t yet fly, but they’re almost fully grown.”
“As the osprey is a Schedule 1 protected species, only those with a licence from the British Trust for Ornithology are permitted to approach and handle the birds.
“We keep the process as short and stress-free as possible, with the minimum of handling and time away from normal routine for the birds.”
The live osprey cam is still trained on nest 1 (Blue 35 and White YW), so you can keep a close eye on the chicks for the rest of the season, till the ospreys migrate in September. Follow #FoulshawOspreys to keep up with the latest news from both nests.
The second nest is quite close to the boardwalk and is vulnerable to disturbance, so visitors are asked to be aware of this when they visit.
Cumbria Wildlife Trust has built a hide nearby to view the new nest from and asks everyone to use this hide respectfully, taking other visitors’ experiences into account.
The car park at Foulshaw Moss Nature Reserve is quite small and gets full quickly.
People are asked to access it via public transport if they can – for more information, visit https://www.cumbriawildlifetrust.org.uk/nature-reserves/foulshaw-moss. There are also bike racks available.
People arriving in cars are asked if they find that the car park is full, to return at a later time or date.
The access road to the nature reserve is narrow and doesn’t have passing places.
Blue 35 and White YW first came to Foulshaw Moss Nature Reserve in 2013 after it was transformed by a large-scale habitat restoration programme. Over a decade or so, the 900-acre site, which had been drained and used for commercial forestry, was returned to the healthy wetland you see now, which is teeming with wildlife.
Foulshaw Moss Nature Reserve is open daily, free of charge. It’s located off the A590 near Witherslack.
