Friday, July 11, 2025
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Birds

Overwintering Ospreys

The three Ospreys, Pandion haliaetus, being monitored by conservation group Fapas have returned for another year to overwinter in the estuaries of Asturias, arriving mid-September and leaving towards the end of March.

From west to east the river estuaries being used are the Eo, Nalón and the tidal inlet Ría de Villaviciosa Natural Reserve. With their project, Alerta Pescadora, Fapas have built artificial nests and set up automatic cameras hoping to encourage Ospreys to breed in the area again after an absence of 50 - 60 years. Elsewhere on the Cantabrian coast there are a few other individuals overwintering in, for example, the Santoña marshes while currently there are still breeding pairs in the Canaries, Balearics and coasts of Andalucia and southern Portugal. See Osprey report from SEO/Birdlife.

Ben the Osprey returns to Villaviciosa

The Osprey overwintering in the Ría de Villaviciosa is a male that they guess is 11 years old. Named Ben, he has been ringed with a yellow tag on his right leg marked "4A" but so far has not been identified either on passage to and from or in his summer breeding grounds, which they think might be somewhere in Scotland. This is his 5th consecutive winter in the estuary since being ringed.

Here's a video of Ben, and other visitors, at one of his habitual landing posts.

Flora and Fauna of the Picos de Europa
Go to Iberian Wildlife
Over the past 25 years, Teresa Farino has compiled a report (more than 100 A4 pages) that includes lists of all the mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, butterflies, dragonflies, beetles, grasshoppers & crickets and vascular plants ever recorded the Picos de Europa, plus summaries of each of these groups and an eight-page introduction to the natural history of these mountains. If you would like to purchase a copy, the price is 17.50€, excluding postage and packaging; alternatively, a copyrighted PDF document sent by email costs 11.50€. Click on the image to contact Teresa for further details or to place your order.

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