My Osprey Encounter
A bit too far away and super cropped, but that’s an Osprey with a fish!
How I quite arrived at this location, at this point in time is a story that goes back to my childhood. I have been captivated by the Osprey from about 10yrs of age. To me it was a bird of legend, a very rare sighting in Scotland, and back then (mid 70’s) I think there were only a couple of breeding pairs. I remember being super excited visiting Loch Garten on a school trip waiting my turn to look through a telescope at what to me was just as amazing as seeing a Golden Eagle, or even a White-tailed Sea Eagle! However I remember feeling vaguely cheated, that rather grainy image through the telescope didn’t quite live up to my expectations.
Time moved on, life moved me in a direction away from what in my childhood truly gave me joy. I moved into ‘real life’, a job, security and somehow searching for another more fulfilling osprey sighting slid to the back of my mind to be replaced with more ‘important’ activities. I was not the only one moving on. My parents moved to the Isle of Bute and although I had left home by then I was, and remain, a frequent visitor. Then one day out of the blue, when the osprey image through the telescope had faded to a blur, my dad said, “Oh by the way, I heard the other day that there were Osprey’s nesting on the island…” Even then it was another 5yrs before circumstances aligned for me to allow myself the time to actively go in search of my elusive raptor.
In June of 2021 I found myself back on the island, this time resolved that at least visiting Loch Fad would be high on my list. It was on an untraditionally ‘scorcher’ of a Scottish day that I cycled to the loch and set up my equipment, never really convinced I’d see anything but quietly hoping. Despite all the times I had visited the island I had never been to Loch Fad and I was surprised and enthralled by the unexpected beauty and ‘feel’ of the loch, it’s vastness, sitting below the road, mostly hidden from view. You can’t quite shake the feeling you are in a totally different part of Scotland. I became so lost in the tranquility I almost missed the appearance of something suspiciously osprey-like overhead.
Osprey over Loch Fad, Isle of Bute
Everything happened very quickly. A few short spirals, a pause, then the plummeting dive to the water, a splash and then flapping away, still partly obscured by spray, then steadily beating away and climbing out over the tress that line the loch. All the while I was trying to keep focus and not mash the shutter button, knowing I was beyond the limits of the lens. Had it caught a fish or not? I suspected it must have or it would still be hunting. Had I really seen an osprey and watched a successful hunt? A hasty, excited review of the images showed that indeed I had. They were never going to be National Geographic but that was clearly an osprey and that was clearly a fish in its talons.
To me this was not just about realising a dream from my boyhood. So many factors had come to play over the years for me to experience this one moment, right place, right time, right headspace. I felt that maybe I hadn't found the osprey, it had found me.