A group of young ospreys arrives at the Fribourg prison grounds

Twelve young ospreys have been brought from Germany and Norway to the canton of Fribourg, where they are being raised at the Bellechasse prison.

Last year, the first young ospreys were brought to Switzerland.

On Monday, some of the small raptors arrived in Switzerland on a direct flight from Oslo, according to Wendy Strahm, a biologist and coordinator of the project run by the western Swiss association «Nos Oiseaux».

Strahm collected further young ospreys from eastern Germany and brought them to Switzerland. She and Denis Landenbergue drove through the entire night to do so. While she admitted it was tiring, the journey was made easier by the fact that the birds slept throughout the trip.

Whitefish as feed

The biologist expects eight of the young birds to be male and four female, though sex is still difficult to determine at this stage. The young ospreys are five to six weeks old and will not take flight for at least another month. On the grounds of Bellechasse near Sugiez FR, they are being fed whitefish.

The first young ospreys brought to the canton of Fribourg from Scotland last year fledged in September. The migratory birds, which can reach a wingspan of up to 170 centimetres as adults, set off on their journey to West Africa.

Two of them collided with high-voltage power lines in Switzerland along the way. Another was injured by a poacher in Algeria — and survived only by a stroke of luck, according to Strahm.

Expected to return as adults

In four years, when the ospreys have reached adulthood, they are expected to return to Lake Murten. Ospreys remain loyal to their home territory and return to the area where they first took to the skies.

The nesting site is chosen by the male before it searches for a female. Some pairs wait a long time before reproducing, however, because they have not found a suitable breeding site. As a remedy, the project managers at Lake Murten designate selected tall trees and prepare them for nesting.

Reintroducing the osprey

The association «Nos Oiseaux» wants to reintroduce ospreys in Switzerland. To this end, it plans to bring twelve juvenile birds into the country each year over five years. The reintroduction site was chosen for its tranquillity. For security reasons, public access to the 350 hectares of land at Bellechasse is prohibited.

Ospreys (Pandion haliaetus) bred in Switzerland for the last time in 1914. Poachers and egg collectors were the reason the birds of prey disappeared from the country thereafter. In the sparsely populated north of Europe, however, the species managed to survive.