The bounce-back of ospreys from UK extinction has been revealed by the latest rare bird figures – with Northumberland playing its part in the recovery. Ospreys became extinct in England in the 1840s and in the UK by last century. But in 1955 a single pair bred at Loch Garten in Scotland, with the population gradually growing and moving south, leading to the first pair breeding at Kielder in Northumberland in 2009.

Now the annual report of the UK Rare Breeding Birds Panel (RBBP) for 2021 – the latest year for which data is available – shows that nationally 281 pairs of ospreys were reported and 232 eggs were laid. This is the highest figure recorded in the panel’s 50-year history. In 1973 there were just 10 breeding pairs.

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Kielder is now established as a breeding colony, and in 2021 it recorded its biggest number of pairs at seven, with 16 chicks raised to fledging. Of the nests monitored since 2009, a total of 120 offspring have left Kielder Forest.

This year seven chicks were also born to four different Kielder-hatched birds breeding elsewhere. Three were to a Kielder female at Foulshaw Moss in Cumbria, who is thought to have now raised around 30 youngsters. Kielder birds also bred at three nests spread across Scotland.

Kielder provides a quality habitat for the fish-eating eagles, with its remoteness minimising disturbance and Kielder Water stocked with rainbow trout by Northumbrian Water. Forestry England has also installed nesting platforms with add to natural tree nest sites.

RBBP secretary Dr Mark Eaton, who lives in Alnwick, said that the osprey story showed that although the environment and wildlife was under pressure and suffering declines, nature could be helped on the road to recovery.

He said: “ Kielder is a very important osprey breeding site where there has been natural expansion and there is now a secure population. A few decades ago people would only have seen an osprey in Northumberland passing through and would not have dreamed of seeing them breeding here.”