Cotswolds hope to attract ospreys

26/07/2007 00:00:00 November 2006. Wiltshire Wildlife Trust’s Swillbrook Lakes Nature Reserve, in the heart of the Cotswold Water Park, has created an osprey platform that is hoped will attract ospreys en route to their winter quarters in Africa. Ospreys have been seen at Swillbrook Lakes and nearby Lower Moor Farm nature reserves and in September one was seen at the Trust’s Langford Lakes Nature Reserve near Salisbury.

Nick Adams, the volunteer reserve warden at Swillbrook, is hoping the new designer accommodation will persuade ospreys to stay for some time and possibly even breed.

‘The idea of the platform is to simulate a well established osprey’s nest,’ says Nick. ‘So when an osprey is passing on its migration either on its way south to Africa, or, even better, on its return north in Spring, the bird will be attracted to stay around in the belief that Swillbrook Lakes is a traditional Osprey site.’ That impression will be added to by a few special design features. ‘The ‘nest’ has been made to look old by using old sticks that have lost their bark. The cup of the nest was then filled with moss and turf and finally splattered with white paint to simulate droppings,’ says Nick.

‘With ospreys breeding successfully in Scotland and now at Rutland Water, the number of immature ospreys looking for places to summer and eventually breed in is increasing annually. It’s now a case of sitting back waiting for the birds to arrive!’

The platform was put together by Ali Swainston, Director of Estates of the Cotswold Water Park Society, and Dave Wier from Wier Trees Limited. It was paid for thanks to the generosity of Lower Mill Estate.

Courtesy of Wiltshire Wildlife Trust