Life Of Ospreys

Product Description

Ospreys are one of our best known & best loved birds & the name Roy Dennis is not only synonymous with the successful return of the osprey to Scotland but is also renowned for his international work with a variety of species. From the time he saw his first osprey back in 1960 Roy has worked to help this magnificent raptor establish itself once more in a country where it had been hounded & persecuted to near-extinction over hundreds of years. This book tells the story not only of the osprey but of the osprey watcher following the birds fortunes in Scotland seeing its numbers rise from that single pair in the 1950s to close to 200 pairs today. From a look at its history in Scotland & the rest of the UK including the bad old days of egg thieves & the shooting of birds as specimens it moves to the present day with satellite radios allowing us to follow the every move of the osprey on its migration to Africa & back. Roy has pioneered the building of artificial nests for ospreys which had been instrumental in increasing their numbers & range as well as starting the first European trans-location taking chicks from their nests in the Highlands & releasing them at Rutland Water Nature Reserve in the Midlands. The book also covers the ecology of the osprey with many personal anecdotes & insights. Diary entries give a more immediate feel to the chapters & the worldwide distribution of ospreys is enlivened by that sense of immediacy. Roys writings at a time when no one knew whether or not his lifetimes work would succeed add a sense of history to this personal tale.