The thrills and spills of photographing fishing ospreys at Horn Mill - just an hour from Cambridge
Paul Brackley photographs an extraordinary wildlife spectacle, just an hour from Cambridge.
We watch, in the early morning light, as its head bobs and weaves – like some kind of avian dance move – from high on its perch.
Fingers on our cameras’ shutter buttons, we wait in acute anticipation.
Then, quick as a flash, it dives at incredible speed into the pond in front of us, generating an almighty splash.
Amid slight panic that we might miss it all, we train our lenses on the action in front of us, and pray that our cameras’ autofocus capabilities are up to the task.
With its huge wings beating, it lifts itself out of the water – droplets spraying behind it – and we can see a trout clasped in its claws.
To our delight, it turns and heads towards and past us, flying up and away with its catch.
Exhilarated, we check to see if we’ve captured an image to do the moment justice…
This was my first experience of photographing an osprey diving for fish, and it’s not something I’ll forget.
It’s an awesome sight – and I didn’t have to travel to a Scottish loch for it.
It’s scarcely believable that you can witness this at such close quarters here, but thanks to what might seem an unlikely alliance between a hugely successful osprey reintroduction programme and a nearby trout farm business, you can enjoy one of the UK’s most incredible wildlife experiences just an hour from Cambridge.
We rose at 2am to head up to Horn Mill Trout Farm in the county of Rutland before sunrise.
There, on a working trout farm, is a photography hide for six people, sunk into the ground and overlooking a well-stocked pond.
We were in position at 3.45am. At that hour, it can be cold, so you’d be well-advised to wrap up warm if you’re heading to a similar morning session.
Shortly after arrival, we watched five grey herons squabbling and flying about over the pond, which measures 36m by 17m and is stocked with several thousand trout.
Next, a red kite appeared to do an osprey impression by swooping and collecting a fish off the surface.
As the sun began to rise and the light began to improve, we were delighted to hear from our spotter that an osprey was approaching. The spotter is a guide who watches from a higher vantage point and uses a walkie-talkie to keep those in the hide in the know about what’s about. It’s handy, because you can’t see what’s behind the hide or approaching from a distance once you’re inside.
This osprey dive proves successful, and it’s not too long before he – a dominant male with the ring T7 – returns for another go and after a few attempts succeeds again.
Despite their prowess at hunting, the ospreys don’t always get their catch. Indeed, during our session, we’re fortunate enough to see another two ospreys dive several times each before they succeed. Every dive is welcome – not least because it’s an amazing spectacle, but also because it affords us extra chances to capture the action on camera.
In total, the three ospreys dived 11 times and swooped on 10 more occasions.
The final dive is the most spectacular of the lot.
The osprey lands with force in the water and almost seems to be struggling to take off. It rests for a second, wings outstretched like a feathery lilo, and seems to look straight towards us – although we’re hidden away in the hide. Then when it takes off, we see the large trout it’s captured between its claws.
This one flies towards the hide too – one of the photographers has a perfect head-on view. When it flashes by us, talons gripping the trout tightly, it’s literally just a few metres in front of us. Even with my lens zoomed out to 200mm, I can’t fit the whole bird in the frame as it passes by before lifting up into the sky.
The experience leaves each one of us somewhat stunned.
In addition to the ospreys and red kite, we witnessed a little egret fishing along with numerous grey herons – one of which caught a shrew. A muntjac deer and a very close encounter with a grey wagtail also entertained us as we awaited the next osprey visit.
Of course, every session is different – and not everyone who visits will be as fortunate as we were to see three ospreys diving.
Attending the afternoon/evening session earlier in the season, we saw more than one osprey flying about, but were unlucky not to witness any dives. We did, however, witness a red kite snatching a trout from the surface in beautiful light.
Most sessions are successful – indeed, out of 260 held between April and August last year, only 10 of them did not get sight of an osprey.
The birds come from nearby Rutland Water, where an osprey reintroduction programme was launched in the late 1990s.
Horn Mill has become an important fishing site for the ospreys there, which is good news for those who want to get a close-up view of them.
Even if you’re not a photographer, the sight of them diving for fish is something to behold.
And if you are, then the experience is too good to miss.
Photographers can book sessions, which typically run from before dawn to 8.30am or about 4.30pm to dusk, for £87 each, by contacting lawrenceball66@yahoo.com or calling 07710 636395. Visit rivergwashtroutfarm.co.uk for more.
‘The irony is not lost on me - ospreys have saved this fish farm business’
There is a certain irony – not lost on the owner – that Horn Mill Trout Farm has been saved by ospreys.
It is a happy example of business and nature working harmoniously together.
But it didn’t exactly start like that.
“We were running a big fish farm site, on the River Gwash in Ryhall, which I built 25 years ago and was one of the last fish farm sites for trout in the UK,” Lawrence Ball recalls.“I’d previously managed the hatchery site at Horn Mill for its former owner and then I left there to build this fish farm. When the owner decided to sell Horn Mill, I bought it.
“The beauty of Horn Mill is it’s fed by spring water so we can do everything from egg – we’re responsible for our own production. But obviously, when running fish farms, predation is a big issue. We’ve got fish in ponds and lots of things like to eat trout: herons, cormorants, mink, egrets, gulls, crows, otters and – when they’re small – even ducks and grass snakes.”
In 1996, osprey chicks from nests in Scotland were moved and released at Rutland Water with the aim of creating a self-sustaining breeding population of ospreys in central England.
In 2001, a translocated male – numbered 03(97), as he was moved to Rutland Water in 1997 – raised a single chick with a ringed female from Scotland close to the reservoir. And so a huge conservation success story began. Since then, more than 200 young ospreys have fledged from nests in the Rutland Water area.
But of course, over at Horn Mill, the increase in osprey numbers added to the predation issue.
“We’d worked with the Rutland Osprey Project right from the late 1990s when they first started,” recalled Lawrence. “Since their reintroduction to Rutland, they have fished at Horn Mill Trout Farm.
“As the osprey numbers increased, so did the daily visits from the ospreys. The predation from ospreys wasn’t in itself a problem. At that point, we were selling 80,000 to 90,000 fish a year – all for restocking of rivers, streams, lakes, gravel pits, syndicates and clubs for fly fishing. We’re not rearing fish intensively. We’re rearing fish with more space so they look pristine and when someone catches it, it looks like a wild grown-on fish.
“So while the ospreys weren’t really the issue, they were the final straw, with the otters, mink, herons and cormorants. When you added it up, we were losing 10,000 to 15,000 fish a year. From a business point of view, that couldn’t continue.
“So we made the decision about 11 or 12 years ago to net the site in at Horn Mill properly, with high tensile wire and mesh around the side to stop the otters, and cover it in with nylon predator netting to stop the predation.
“When we did this, we were inadvertently stopping off a food source for ospreys. Obviously they fish everywhere within the Rutland area, but there weren't many days that went by where you didn’t see an osprey there.
“Tim Mackrill and the others on the project realised the importance of the site at Horn Mill.
“Part of the success of the project – and Tim would agree with this – was that available food source at Horn Mill on days when they couldn’t fish at Rutland Water, perhaps because it was too windy or because of another variable.”
Tim asked Lawrence if he had considered leaving one of the ponds uncovered and installing a hide for photographers.
“I had considered it – I’d seen what they’ve done in Scotland and I looked at social media, but I dismissed it as unworkable,” says Lawrence. “I simply didn’t think people would want to come to a fish farm site in Rutland to photograph ospreys! And I didn’t think it would be reliable enough for photographers.
“But Tim and John Wright, who worked on the project with him, convinced me otherwise and said ‘Absolutely, they will’. I said, ‘OK, let’s try it, let’s give it a go. I know nothing about photography so you’re going to have to advise me.’
“They looked at the pond and we decided how we’d let it mature – we wouldn’t keep it like we would on a fish farm, where it would be neatly mowed. We let the banks become more natural and the trees grow.
“They designed and built a hide, initially for four people, and our first season was 11 years ago. It was hit and miss to be honest, but we had some fantastic photographers in – Geoff Harries was brilliant and we had Alan Crofts, who is now on the team as one of our spotters.”
Since the early days, the hide has gone from strength to strength.
“About six years ago, I redesigned the hide myself and rebuilt it, making it lower and longer, using all the feedback we had gleaned from people,” says Lawrence. “It’s half of the business now, it’s quite incredible.
“With Covid and everything else, and the big changes in the fish farming industry – most notably the massive increase in cost of feed and electricity, the things we use a lot of in aquaculture – I can honestly say that without the additional revenue from the hide in the last six years, the business would have gone bust.
“The irony is not lost on me: osprey photography has saved the business. It’s brilliant. Everyone enjoys it.
“The spotting team we’ve got is great. They are passionate and enthusiastic. Some of them work on the reserve – like Linda Berry, who has been on the Osprey Project from the start and there’s nothing she doesn’t know about Rutland ospreys. And we’ve got some good photographers, so it’s a good mix.
“We’re really proud of it. In business, you roll with what’s in front of you, but what I’d initially considered to be totally unworkable has proved anything but that.
“We run the whole fish farm now around the five months that the hide is open.”
The hide opens from April into August, until the ospreys begin to visit less frequently ahead of their migration back to Africa.
