Newly hatched osprey chick left trapped after fish almost flips it out of nest at Rutland Water

A newly hatched osprey chick was almost thrown from its nest at Rutland Water, into the water below by a huge fish.

The chick was left trapped on the edge of the nest after being flipped there by a fish one of the parent ospreys had caught and brought to the nest.

It was unharmed, but after seeing the incident unfold on the nest camera, Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust workers decided to step in after noticing the chick could not get back into the nest.

They took a boat out to the nest and moved the chick back into the centre.

Describing the incident on Wednesday 15 May, Leicestershire & Rutland Wildlife Trust said: "We had a bit of a hearts in mouth moment. It started when 33 brought this colossal fish back to the nest, which unfortunately wasn't quite dead and flipped on to the chick, a bit reminiscent of last year.

"Thankfully, once 33 removed the fish from the nest, it looked as though the chick was unharmed, but unfortunately it had been displaced to the side of the nest.

"In the process of the the fish hitting it. We watched this sort of agonizing footage for a good 20 minutes before realizing the chick really was trapped at the side of the nest.

"So we went out on a boat and the species recording officer Tim Sexton repositioned the chick back into the centre of the mountain bay nest with as little interference as possible.

The trust said the incident "perfectly highlighted the perils of growing up in nature."

The chick is the first of the trust's Osprey eggs to have hatched at Manton Bay, hatching only a few days ago.

The first egg arrived over the Easter weekend by Maya and her breeding partner, who have been together as a pair for 10 seasons, shortly joined by two further eggs.

Rutland Osprey Project celebrated its 250th successfully fledged osprey chick last year.

Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust launched the osprey reintroduction program back in 1996 and now has a self-sustaining breeding population with some of the ospreys breeding in other parts of the UK and internationally.

Maya is the only named female osprey at Rutland Water and has been returning for the last 15 years. She has recently been named as being the most successful breeding female osprey with almost 40 chicks to date.

After fledging her chicks will migrate approximately 3,500 miles to Africa, spending the first few years as juveniles, before returning to Rutland Water in the future.

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