I saw my first Ospreys several years ago whilst on holiday in Scotland, making a special trip to the Loch Garten nature reserve - a world famous site in the osprey world. From the large visitor hide overlooking pine trees, I was excited to watch an adult in the nest with a couple of juveniles with the other parent bird perched close by.

It was a really special and captivating moment for me and I didn’t really want to leave! Once you have watched these iconic birds it is easy to see how some people have made it their life’s work to bring back these birds from the brink of extinction and do everything they can to help the population to recover.

I have since been on field trips to Wales and Rutland Water to see the birds a bit closer to home. I’ve learnt a great deal about these beautiful birds, how they nest, the habitat they need, their ecology, behaviour and migration patterns and how we can help them by building artificial nests in the right places within the landscape. I have also been fortunate to meet and learn from some of the leading experts in England and Wales, especially Tim Mackrill from the Roy Dennis Foundation, staff at Rutland and Leicestershire Wildlife Trust at Rutland Water and Emyr Evans and staff from Montgomery Wildlife Trust, absorbing the latest information and research.

This has enabled me to continue and build on the project within Derbyshire along with our excellent volunteer support.  With all the knowledge and hard work put in over the years, it would be a fantastic achievement to get our first breeding pair of ospreys here in this county. It would also be a great addition to the legacy of the Scotland and Rutland Water osprey projects

It is a great privilege for me to be able to work on this project alongside our great volunteers. I can’t wait to see our first family of ospreys being reared in the county!