The amazing story of Doddie

I had a truly amazing birdwatching experience on Sunday.

I saw an osprey in Somerset.

What’s so amazing about that? I hear you ask, ospreys often drop into the Avalon Marshes at the end of August, indeed I saw a lovely osprey exactly a year ago as per this old blogpost

But this year’s bird was no ordinary osprey, and this year has been no ordinary year.

Monday 6th April 2020 – the start of week 3 of Coronavirus lockdown, my good friend Anthony sends me a link to the Woodland Trust Osprey webcam from Loch Arkaig in the Scottish Highlands. ‘Have you seen this? he asks.

I hadn’t, but immediately I was hooked.

Two ospreys had just arrived from West Africa and were looking like they were going to use the man-made nesting platform with live online feed. All who were in lockdown at home would be able to watch these beautiful wild birds in a beautiful West Highland setting.

 The following week, Anthony had contracted Covid and was laid low for several days.

It was a most worrying wake-up call and we tried to keep his pecker up over Zoom by discussing the daily ‘osprey action’ coming through from Loch Arkaig.

Anthony had no idea just how often ospreys copulate – and he is a doctor, he should know about things like that.

Fortunately, Anthony shook off the virus after a couple of weeks, and soon got his strength back - many others were not so lucky.

I introduced another of my close friends early on to the Osprey webcam, and he too became hooked.

Nicky Campbell presents the breakfast show on BBC 5 Live to a huge daily audience and in one of the links with his co-presenter Rachel Burden, Nicky commented on how much he was enjoying watching the Osprey webcam. It was a throw-away exchange that (literally) took wings. His listeners responded in their droves wanting more details. Many explained how they were already loving the real-life drama watching the comings and goings of the ospreys and just how therapeutic watching nature was for their health and wellbeing – particularly when everyone was stuck at home.

The next day Nicky had set up a formal interview with a representative from the Woodland Trust giving his listeners the low-down on all thing’s osprey. It was a great ‘good news’ story just at a time when the country was needing one. The Woodland Trust got a great plug and a big spike in its numbers logging on to their website.

As often happens when a good story breaks on the breakfast show other media outlets picked up on it and ran with it too. Channel 4 News featured it that evening, Breakfast T.V. the next morning, plus many of the national newspapers featured articles on the osprey cam in the days ahead.

Huge numbers of online visitors were now enjoying watching the ospreys – and so was I.

I found if I had work to do at my computer, I could have the live stream playing on my phone for hours at a time.

The first egg was laid on the 23rd of April; second on the 26th and the third on the 29th.

A month later all three eggs hatched to much excitement.

The chicks were duly named; ‘Doddie’, after the Scottish rugby legend, Doddie Weir, who is battling against Motor Neurone Disease, ‘Vera’ after Dame Vera Lynn the wartime singing sweetheart who had died in June and ‘Captain’ named after the remarkable Captain Tom Moore, known for his achievements raising money for the NHS in the run-up to his 100th birthday during the pandemic.

All chicks thrived, and it was a joy to watch them grow. They were ringed on the 2nd of July by the BTO (British Trust for Ornithology) Seemingly Scottish ospreys have coded blue plastic rings fitted to their left legs and English and Welsh ospreys have them on their right legs.

The ospreys of Loch Arkaig were great companions to many through the strange summer of 2020. All three chicks survived. They fledged in the middle of July and were gone by the middle of August. ‘Doddie’ was last seen on the nest on Saturday 15th of August.

I logged off from the Osprey cam.

Then there came the final twist to the tail of the ospreys last Sunday, the 23rd of August.

We were supposed to have been hosting my pal Nicky and his family here in Somerset but at the last minute one of his girls caught the virus and they have had to quarantine at home in London – all our plans were dashed. Rather than sulk at home, we headed off on a family cycle ride across the Levels to have a tasty Sunday lunch at The Sheppey Inn in Godney, returning via Somerset Wildlife Trust’s flagship reserve at Westhay Moor before the teeth of Storm Francis took hold.

As we passed the reserve an osprey shot overhead and disappeared into some tall trees.

“Did you see that? – I am sure that was an osprey.”

It was just a quick glimpse, but I am positive that’s what it was.

Imagine how I felt when I saw a posting on the Somerset Wildlife Trust’s social media that ‘Doddie’ the recently fledged osprey from Lock Arkaig had popped into the reserves of the Avalon Marshes as a pit-stop on his migration to West Africa. The bird had been photographed by Andrew Kirby a local wildlife photographer https://www.akwildlifeimages.com/ and the blue ring on his left leg had Doddie’s identification code JJ6 clearly visible.

What were the chances of that?

Of all the ospreys in all the world, ‘Doddie’ dropped into our local nature reserve at the exact moment we were passing.

Doddie arrives at the Avalon Marshes