We were wondering about what to give Roy Dennis for his big birthday today, and think that today’s news might do the trick. Mouche (PR4), translocated from Germany and released in Switzerland in 2016, was looking serious about nesting with AM06 in the French Department of Moselle. Now David Meyer has just informed us that she is incubating! Since the nest is at the top of a tall dead tree we do not know how many eggs there are, so we will probably have to wait until next month for more news. 

The Swiss reintroduction project, which started in 2015 with the translocation of six Osprey chicks from Scotland, has hugely benefited from Roy’s decades of experience and good humoured guidance. Our heartfelt thanks go to him, and we send our best wishes for a wonderful 80^th birthday and many more years of conserving Osprey, White-tailed Eagle, and all the other species that he is devoting his life to.

Since Mouche, “our” first known breeding female, is nesting in neighbouring France, let’s hope that a “foreign” female Osprey may return the favour and join one of our single males in Switzerland.