An osprey chick has taken flight for the first time at a South Cumbrian nature reserve.
Cumbria Wildlife Trust said male 7K2 fully fledged yesterday at 8.45am at Foulshaw Moss Nature Reserve. He was 52 days old.
Last week, the three osprey chicks at the reserve were tagged and weighed.
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.
It is expected 7K2’s siblings will start to fly in the next few days.
People can watch the chicks on the osprey cam at https://www.cumbriawildlifetrust.org.uk/osprey-webcam
For the first time, there are two osprey nests at Foulshaw Moss.
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 is off the A590 near Witherslack.
