This morning, 12 osprey chicks, about 30 days old and from Scotland, arrived at their new home in the Pego-Oliva Marsh, where they will complete their rearing before taking flight and emigrating to Africa. The objective is for the specimens to keep this place as a reference and return to it in adulthood to breed.
This is an initiative in which the municipalities of Pego, Oliva, Dénia y Xàbia, together with the Ministry of the Environment, the Migres Foundation, the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation and the Iberdrola Foundation. Political representatives from these localities attended the event.
In this sense, the event it already took place in 2023 with the introduction of the same number of chicks as this year. Of the 12 chicks, 11 fledged and there is the possibility that one will return from its wintering area next year when it is an adult.
As highlighted by the general director of Natural and Animal Environment, Raúl Mérida, during the release of eagle chicks, this initiative tries to "guarantee the conservation of this species, whose presence has been reduced in the Community in recent decades." . Along these lines, "the fundamental objective is to recover the species as a nesting species and establish a population that serves as a connection between the Andalusian and Balearic populations," added Raúl Mérida.
In the longer term, as the mayor of Dénia, Vicent Grimalt, has highlighted, "we would like to see ospreys again on the cliffs of Cape Sant Antoni", a natural habitat for this species only half a century ago.
Care of the offspring
The babies have traveled this week from the Scottish Highlands under the supervision of technicians from the Migres Foundation to the Marjal de Pego-Oliva Natural Park where they continue to receive the necessary attention in hacking cages (country breeding) to continue monitoring their development. until they are suitable for release and migrate to African lands (Senegal and neighboring countries).
At their age, the chicks are already capable of feeding themselves from the food that their parents provided them. From this moment on, the monitoring technicians take on the functions of caring for and feeding the chickens without direct contact, so that they can spend the last weeks (approximately 30 days) of development in the artificial nest boxes.
Fishing eagle
The osprey (Pandion haliaetus) is one of the most widely distributed birds of prey in the world, with a presence on all continents except Antarctica. Although the species is not threatened on a global scale, European populations, and particularly those in the Mediterranean basin, suffered a significant decline at the end of the 20th century.
"Although in the past it was considered a well-distributed species in the Iberian Peninsula, it became extinct as a breeder in the 80s, being reduced to a few dozen in the island populations of the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands," Mérida concluded.
