OSPREY 



Pandion haltaettis 



N olden times the Osprey was a fairly common bird on 

 the wild mountain lochs of the Highlands, but now its 

 numbers have sadly decreased, and only a few pairs resort 

 to the northern districts of our Islands during the nesting 

 season. It still breeds in Inverness-shire, Ross-shire, and 

 the adjoining counties, where the few known eyries are 

 carefully preserved. It is known as a rare straggler to 

 the Hebrides, the Orkneys and Shetlands, and to Ireland. In England it has 

 occurred in almost every county on the seacoast, no doubt on migration. 



The favourite haunts of the Osprey are the pine-clad mountain-sides 

 overlooking some wild loch teeming with trout, or the marshy ground studded 

 with large trees and overgrown with rushes, which almost conceal the deep 

 pools of peaty water along the course of the little burns. Or again, in some 

 wild rocky glen, amongst the huge boulders and shattered birch and pine 

 trunks, where the mountain stream leaps roaring down in innumerable water- 

 falls and rapids, the Osprey may be seen perched on a lonely rock, eagerly 

 scanning the surface of the deep pool for his finny prey. 



The food of the Osprey is composed of various kinds of fish : among the 

 Highland lochs and rivers trout form the principal article of diet; salmon, 

 pike, bream, roach, etc., are eaten in more southern districts ; and on the coast, 

 flounders, saithe, etc., are taken. The actions of the Osprey when searching 

 for its prey remind one of a Kestrel quartering some meadow. I have watched 

 an Osprey sailing over the shallows on a Highland loch, every now and again 

 hovering with outstretched wings, till it spied a fish. Balancing itself for a 

 moment, it dropped like a stone into the water, making a tremendous splash, 

 and rose after a few seconds with a lovely trout struggling in its talons. 

 When caught, the fish is carried to some lofty tree or rock to be devoured 



8? 



