Foulshaw Moss Nature Reservee

Foulshaw Moss Nature Reserve

Foulshaw Moss Nature Reserve near Grange-over-Sands.

Each year a pair of breeding Ospreys return to South Cumbria to raise their chicks. So far, they have raised 18 chicks since 2014.

The Ospreys usually arrive at the site, near Grange-over-Sands, around the beginning of May and start to hatch chicks by the end of the month.

The adults then spend a lot of time hunting for fish to feed and fledge their brood before they all migrate south to warmer climes in early September.

Foulshaw Moss

This year, they returned again, and hopefully, they will be nurturing their first chicks of the season.

This will be the tenth consecutive year the birds have returned to this site.

During the 18th Century, due to persecution from taxidermists, and egg collectors and considered vermin by some, breeding ospreys almost became extinct.

They slowly began to re-establish themselves naturally during the 1850s in Scotland.

Consequently, it was a very slow process in expanding to new areas outside Scotland due to their preference of returning to breed close to where they fledged.

In England, it was a different story completely as no ospreys had called the country home for decades.

Cumbria Wildlife Trust (CWT) took over the ownership of the site from the Forestry Commission in 1998.

The conservationists set about restoring the natural habitat, including building nesting platforms around wetlands such as Foulshaw Moss.

The platforms had to be built to make them look as authentic as possible as ospreys preference is to use a pre-used nest.

The work of the restoration of the natural habitat was to recreate the bog-like conditions that once existed here.

Due to the wonderful work of the Cumbria Wildlife Trust, a pair of ospreys have returned to Foulshaw Moss Nature Reserve every year since 2014 and have so far successfully raised 18 chicks.

The raised platforms at Foulshaw Moss are manned by volunteers throughout the summer with powerful telescopes where you can get excellent views of the nest.

The pair of ospreys are called White YW and Blue 35.

Update 2023: The pair have returned again.

It has been announced that Blue 35 has laid her first egg of the year.

Ospreys tend to lay a clutch of two to three eggs, sometimes (but rarely four), at two-or three-day intervals.

You can watch the Ospreys on the Foulshaw Moss webcam here:

https://www.cumbriawildlifetrust.org.uk/wildlife/cams/osprey-cam3

If you are looking for a holiday cottage near Foulshaw Moss Nature Reserve enquire here.

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