WHAT A RELIEF!

Driving down the track this morning to where I park my car by the nest, I was feeling pretty despondent as Samson had only been this late once before and that was when a weather system over southern France and Spain had held up many of our migrating birds. I looked across the field to see an unusual silhouette of a bird. Was it? Could it be? The bird then dived into the field margin and came up with a large clump of dead grass which it proceeded to carry back across the field and I was sure. It was an osprey and I would bet money on it being Samson. I raced into where I could see the nest camera view and, sure enough, not any old osprey but my beloved Samson was sitting proudly on the nest clutching one of several piles of nest material he had already collected.

Scrolling back through the morning’s recording, I saw that he had arrived at about 1050 and, after a brief look round to see if his mate was around, had set straight to tidying and bringing more material for the nest.

Just before noon, he came back onto the nest and was keenly watching something above him which seemed to be circling and getting closer. He took off as it approached but circled back immediately when he realised that it was Blue 500 (Augusta), who hadn’t been seen on camera since 8th April but clearly had, as I had speculated in my last blog, been wandering around but keeping a close eye on her home nest.

She immediately started fish begging in that inimitable style of hers (if he had any doubts as to her identity, that would have dispelled them!) but he had more material gathering to do and kept her waiting for a while before finally disappearing downstream to do some fishing. I didn’t stay to see when he came back but I expect anyone in the vicinity when he returned would have been witness to a lovely sky dance from him to let everyone know. The boss and his lady were back.