Here's the information about Osprey's distribution worldwide-from the Dyfi Facebook page
Bore day -(Good Morning)

This morning we start a seven part series called "Seven Things You Never Knew About Ospreys". It is aimed at children and learning more about this bird of prey, some things you will know already, but hopefully even the most fanatical 'ospreyholic' will learn at least one thing new. Children need to be aged between 3 and 103 to take part.

Seven Things You Never Knew About Ospreys

Part 1 - Populations and Distribution

Despite being rare in the UK due to centuries of persecution, the osprey is one of the most widely distributed raptor species, second only to the peregrine falcon. You will find ospreys on every continent on earth except Antarctica. They are superbly adapted to living and breeding in extreme environments from the freezing cold temperatures of the Arctic circle to scorching hot equatorial temperatures.

Ospreys are not closely related to other birds of prey having had no common ancestor to another bird species for at least 15 million years. That's twice as long as when humans and chimpanzees both shared an ancestor.

Despite their huge global range and millions of years as a single lineage, ospreys look pretty much the same the world over. Some are shorter, some are paler, but the overall template of what an osprey looks like as remained unchanged for millions of years. There are four main 'sub-species' of osprey recognised based on where they breed.

1. Pandion Haliaetus Haliaetus - Palearctic: Europe all the way to eastern Russia (to the left and above Ceulan's head on the map). Most of these migrate directly south during the non-breeding winter although some small populations that breed in sufficiently hot countries are non-migratory. Those ospreys that breed around the Red Sea for example.

2. Pandion Haliaetus Carolinensis - North America: Tends to have larger, darker body and a paler breast and head than 1. These too migrate south in the winter but some birds breeding in hotter areas like Florida, California and Mexico will stay put all year round.

3. Pandion Haliaetus Ridgwayi - Caribbean Islands: Very pale head and breast compared with 1, and only a weak 'eye mask'. These do not migrate.

4. Pandion Haliaetus Cristatus - Australia and Tasmania: These do not migrate and some people consider these to be different enough from other osprey populations to be a separate species (Eastern Osprey)


The world wide population of osprey is very difficult to estimate but is in the many tens of thousands of individuals. In the UK however there are only around 260 pairs - around half the population of golden eagles. Like the eagle, most of the ospreys are in Scotland with just a handful of pairs in England and Wales (around 10) and none in Ireland.

TRACKING OSPREY - The Wales Dyfi project has teamed up with Google Earth to track their osprey migrations. Here is a handy "How To' if you want to use Google Earth to follow these particular birds. These people are so passionate about re-establishing the birds in their area-it's a real effort.

http://tinyurl.com/lm9xfdg

Did I mention how user friendly they are??

Here's a link to the long blog about all the 7 Things You Never Knew About Ospreys posted by the Dyfi folks at the Montgomeryshire reserve in Wales.

http://tinyurl.com/mevwe3c Lots of interesting facts and some history of their efforts to restore the osprey to that area.

This week's blog is all about a photo contest they ran over the weekend. Although there are several British Songbirds, there are some really good raptor pics, too. I liked the Sea Eagle one.

http://www.dyfiospreyproject.com/blog/20...-a-bakers-dozen

Incubation-a long process. Just waiting it out for Monty and Glesni and the two eggs. Many have high hopes for this pair-they are about two weeks behind other UK osprey nests. Weather can be a real factor here in Wales

GREAT PIC HBRGA!!! THEY'RE SO BEAUTIFUL !

I don't know why I'm so fascinated with the migration of raptors-it's amazing to me. Here's a picture of a visitor to the Dyfi nest. A 2 year old just back from her first trip home from South Africa. She was ringed in Scotland in 2011 and will probably travel on northward. Blue 91 looks ready for anything.


Here's the follow up to her history.
http://tinyurl.com/la43yeb

Osprey Vision: Here's a blog by an interesting British blogger about Osprey(and raptors) vision. Who knew what Monet was forecasting for us???

http://tinyurl.com/qfofhla

Finally sunshine on the nest-Dad- Monty incubates, and Mom-Glesni even brought him a fish. What a pair!!
Yay-sunshine!.JPG - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)

Woo Hoo-Pipping in Wales. These eggs are late in the season, but right on the mark for hatching.

Great closeup!! http://tinyurl.com/o83pupt

-And here comes #2 pipping away. This camera is THE best I've seen. I'm so pulling for this family and project.

http://tinyurl.com/ow4lca9

I know this might be overdoing it, but here's a great blog of some parts you've seen - plus a part showing the actual "birth". Thanks to the new mic we can hear the chick from within the shell as it works to get out of the shell.

http://www.dyfiospreyproject.com/blog/20...t-chick-hatches

HbrgA This is GREAT! TYVM for sharing.