Mouche (PR4) is back in the French department of Moselle since April 5, joining her German partner AM06, who was first seen back on March 18. Many thanks to David Meyer who has sent us this exciting news, and to Heidi Meyer for getting a very distant shot, using her mobile phone through a spotting scope, of the happy couple mating!

Born in eastern Germany in the land of Sachsen-Anhalt, Mouche was translocated to Switzerland where she was released  on July 23, 2016, and migrated on August 25. She was discovered back in Europe for the first time on June 16, 2018 by Patrick Hostert in the French department of Meurthe-et-Moselle, and then not seen again that year.

In 2019 she was found again in neighbouring Moselle by David Meyer and Dominique Lorentz who monitored her from July 26-August 28. However, this time she was not alone, but had paired late in the season with AM06, and they even built a nest! We had high hopes that both would safely return from migration in 2020, and now our wishes have been fulfilled.

Mouche is the first Osprey released by the Swiss reintroduction project to pair and show signs of breeding. Being a female, it is not surprising that she has settled in a territory some 200km away from Bellechasse, since female Osprey are usually not as attached to the area where they fledged as are males. The territorial presence of AM06 in Moselle however is quite exceptional. Born in the land of Brandenburg in eastern Germany in 2016 – the same year as Mouche – he was most probably attracted to the area by the presence of a small breeding population, as well as by a nice single female. Thereby making an exception to the general rule that male Osprey usually return to the area where they first fledged to breed.

As a result of confinement due to the Covid-19 health crisis, monitoring of the nest will be limited this spring. But at the same time, the birds will have exceptional peace and quiet, welcome conditions as it is essential that breeding Osprey are not disturbed.