Ospreys on the Dart

The River Dart is one of the most beautiful rivers in England. Rising high on Dartmoor, it runs for nearly fifty miles south to Dartmouth in the South Hams of Devon. Upstream of Dartmouth is the picturesque town of Totnes, brimming with alternative types of people, and home to the last bridge on the Dart before the sea.

We’re opposite Dartmouth, in Kingswear, ready for a boat trip up the Dart to see if we can view Ospreys migrating through from their breeding grounds, perhaps in Wales or Scotland, to Africa.

There’s swirling drizzle which makes even lifting my camera lens horizontal a problem, and the swell on the sea is too high to make a brief trip out into Lyme Bay to see what wildlife awaits us there. The light is flat and dull and grey.

As we journey up the Dart we see a distant Osprey:

We slow and wait so we don’t disturb it. It rises and flies upstream and we see it getting higher and higher before it spots something in the river far below and plunges in a long diagonal, talons-first, into the river. It emerges clutching a Bass.

It sweeps around the steep-sided valley, scattering fish scales as it goes.

Then it heads towards us, still struggling to turn the fish around so the fish is head first and streamlined.

It flies directly over the boat, the African Queen, and gives itself another shake to remove the water from the dive and the drizzle from its plumage.

It heads up above the trees to find a perch to eat in peace.

What an amazing encounter.

I can’t wait to go out there again. I only hope for better weather and the same Osprey experience.