On the 14th of March we were greeted by a wonderful sight, the first osprey of the year was seen on the Manton Bay nest. 25(10), a regular breeding female on one of the other nest sites in the Leicestershire and Rutland area. she has regularly been the first Osprey to return to the area in previous years, normally stopping at the Manton nest before heading to her own nest-site where she has been breeding for the last 10 years with 11(10). 24(10), 25(10)'s sister, was notably the female of the first breeding pair of Ospreys at the Llyn Brenig site in North Wales since the reintroduction, and 12(10), 11(10)'s sister, was a significant breeding female in the Dyfi population. Notably, 24(10) intruded on 12(10)'s nest site in 2014 and there is some fantastic footage of 24(10) taking it back.

Two days later, we were greeted by a familiar sight when 33(11), Manton Bay's breeding male since 2014, landed on the nest. Given that Maya hadn't returned, we saw 33(11) mating with 25(10) over the next few days, even delivering her a fish. While there were concerns raised online that 33(11) was being unfaithful (even calling 25(10) names such as "hussy" and a "trollop"), it is very natural to see birds pairing when they arrive early to give themselves the best chance of having a successful brood in the season.

Just before 7am on the 19th, an unringed female osprey returned to the nest, quickly chasing 25(10) out of Manton Bay. It was, of course, Maya, our resident breeding female on the Manton Bay nest site since 2010. Since her departure, 25(10) has now returned to her normal site with 11(10) who returned on Friday 24th - we will try and provide updates where we can on that nest site throughout the season.

Since Maya's return, she and 33(11) have been seen mating frequently so it will only be a matter of days now until we see the first egg for the season...