World Osprey Week! (WOW)

From the 11th-15th of April, it is officially World Osprey Week, this is all about raising awareness of these magnificent, graceful birds. I go to school in Oakham and with Rutland Water literally on our doorstep, Rutland Ospreys came into school to celebrate this event at my school.

The plan was to have a Skype to call to other children/students from a school in Italy ( Istituto Comprensivo 5) and a school in Gambia (Tanji Lower Basic School) , there was 6 pupils from my school Catmose College, including myself we all had to do a little presentation on a certain part of the Ospreys and the projects trying to save them, I had to do a 1 minute presentation on the purpose of Satellite Tagging the Ospreys and what the data that we've collected shows about these birds, for example we have a much clearer view on where Rutland and other British Ospreys spend their winter and what migration paths they take.

Here is me talking to kids from Gambia and Italy

After our group from Catmose did their presentation, the children from Gambia had a poem to read to us all about the Ospreys that spend their winter in Gambia, then the children from Italy had a presentation on the Ospreys that are around where they live (Grosseto) and what they know about them.

This was a brilliant opportunity to talk to other kids from across the world despite having a few technical problems there were two common themes being talked about; Ospreys and the Natural World

Myself and the rest of the Catmose crew 

Please go and check out the Rutland Osprey website, also check out their webcams looking over one of the Osprey nests, with the female having only just laid her 3rd egg! http://www.ospreys.org.uk/

Great Grey Shrike at Warren Hills

On Sunday 11th April, my dad made the decision last minute for us to go and see a Great Grey Shrike at Warren Hills, as this bird had been seen for the last 3 days, normally in the county these birds are just moving through

So we headed off to Warren Hills, on the way we picked up my Granddad, all going for this lifer, when we arrived there was a few birders around, but the bird hadn't been seen for 15mins, typical we'd missed the bird by a matter of minutes! But after some extensive searching, I managed to pinpoint the Shrike, taking cover at the bottom of a bush sheltering from the gusty wind, within a few minutes this bird was showing off at the top of his/her's favourite perch, he was catching Bumble Bee's regularly (mainly Red-Tailed Bumbles), after watching were the bird was catching it's prey I moved further along the hedgerow, after some perseverance and waiting I got the shot I was looking for, a flight shot of this bird! After many failed attempts I got the shot I was looking for, even though the bird was around 130m away, it was an awesome bird to see! A lifer, county and year tick putting me at 282 as my life list, 192 for the county and 115 for the year!

Great Grey Shrike on his lookout perch

The flight shot I was looking for!