Osprey chick saved by rail worker

Listen to this article

Saving osprey chicks doesn’t appear in the job description of most Network Rail employees, but for Gavin MacDonald that’s exactly what he was asked to do as torrential rain submerged parts of Wales last month.

The Network Rail electrical worker was called out to the Dyfi Estuary on June 16, after severe weather knocked out power to a series of hidden cameras used by the Dyfi Osprey Project to monitor a family of endangered birds.

A mother osprey was struggling to keep her chicks safe from the wind and rain after her nest was cut off by rising flood water.

Gavin MacDonald

Cars lay semi-submerged on the main road to Dyfi National Park and its railway station Dovey Junction (Cyffordd Dyfi) was flooded.

Gavin said: “The road down from Machynlleth was signed as closed, but I didn’t know how far down it was shut so I went down there anyway.”

Mr MacDonald eventually had to abandon his van, at which point he grabbed his toolkit and began to walk along a path on the edge of the railway.

He added: “It was about a two-and-half-mile walk, but we’re used to working in harsh conditions and we’re used to walking long distances.

“The only thing was that to get to the power connection I had to wade through two feet of flood water and I didn’t have any waders so it was a bit soggy.”

Having fixed the power connection, the Dyfi Osprey Project realised the chicks were failing and decided to intervene.

Staff hand-fed the surviving chick – Ceulan – and mother and chick are now doing fine.

Ospreys were extinct in the UK by 1916.

The first breeding pair was rediscovered in Scotland in the 1950s and they have since begun the road to recovery despite attracting the attentions of egg thieves.

Ospreys have been seen in the Dyfi Estuary regularly since 2004 during the migrating season.

The artificial nest was created in 2007 to encourage some to stay and breed.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Latest Rail News

Andrew Haines looks back on five years of CP6

As Control Period 6 (CP6) comes to a close on 31 March, Network Rail is taking a look back...

More like this...