The History of Wales
A Welsh-born Osprey, leg ringed and named 'Black 80' on the 28th June 2006, was to become the first Welsh-born osprey known to have returned to Britain to breed.
During the middle ages, ospreys would have been widespread throughout Wales and the rest of the U.K. Due to a heavy reliance on fish in the human diet, most big houses and monastic sites would have had a fishpond. These, in turn, would have attracted birds of prey such as the osprey that were themselves hunted and killed. This led to decreasing numbers, which combined with the activities of egg collectors, and trophy hunters, resulted in the osprey becoming totally extinct in Britain by 1916.
* The Mabinogion tells the tale of “The Eagle of Gwernabwy”, described as being “the one who has wandered most”, attempting to catch a salmon from Llyn (lake) Lliw, so large that it is almost drowned. This eagle is likely to be an osprey.
* The Coat of Arms of the city of Swansea, granted in 1316, features an osprey suggesting that they once bred in the area.
* A Flemish engineer working on drainage systems in the Dyfi estuary in 1604 mentioned several “fishey hawkes” breeding close together along the River Dyfi. This is almost certainly a reference to ospreys and the earliest date that can be given to them breeding in Wales,
Ospreys had been reported as migrating over Wales for many years. Llandudno in 1828 and Caernarfon in 1937, but it wasn't until May 2004 that a pair of ospreys was found nesting near Croesor in the Glaslyn Valley, becoming the first to be officially recorded as breeding in Wales. On 26th May 2008 Black 80 a male from the 2006 Glaslyn nest became the first Welsh-born osprey known to have returned to Britain to breed.
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