Tears of joy as osprey visits Devon nests

A conservationist said she "burst into tears" after an osprey landed on nesting poles in Devon.

The Tamar and Tavy Osprey Project installed the nests on top of 56ft (17m) high telegraph poles in June 2024 on farmland in Warleigh Barton, Plymouth, with the hope it would help the rare birds to breed.

A year on from the installation, the group said a female osprey had landed on one of the nests.

Elsa Kent, who helped set up the project, said while the birds had not bred in the nests, the fact an osprey had used one of them was exciting and made all the work worthwhile.

The project said the south-west of England currently had no breeding ospreys, despite the birds being sighted locally for many years.

Ms Kent said the bird which visited had a tag on it which showed the osprey was a female and had travelled from Rutland in the East Midlands via Poole Harbour in Dorset.

She said the bird made hopes of ospreys breeding locally move "one step closer".

"I burst into tears when I saw the osprey land and I was shaking," she said.

"I was so emotional and so excited that all of the work that we've put in and all of the doubt and all the work we put in came to something really magical."

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