Eggcitement has been brewing for the last few days as Maya and her mate, 33, get ready to welcome their eggs - and today saw the first of the clutch emerge.

Today, Friday 12 May, the first of the eggs, laid 38 days ago on the Manton Bay nest at Rutland Water to Maya and 33, has hatched.

The first sighting of the new chick came at 8:18 this morning.

Check back for updates. Image credit: Rutland Osprey Project / Youtube.

The Rutland Osprey Project has been running since 1996, and this year the team are readying themselves for another successful clutch of eggs from returning Osprey, Maya. 

The preservation of Ospreys in the UK began much earlier though, when, in 1954, a pair of ospreys believed to be of Scandinavian origin, kick-started the slow recovery of the population of ospreys in the UK, having successfully raised chicks close to Loch Garten, Aviemore. 

However, it was predicted it could take over 100 years for ospreys to naturally repopulate central England.

In 1996, a translocation project began, which involved moving osprey chicks from nests in Scotland and releasing them at Rutland Water with the aim to create a self-sustaining breeding population of ospreys in central England.

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Thanks to this pioneering project started by Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust in partnership with Anglian Water, ospreys have made a triumphant return to England.

Now, residents can see Ospreys in Rutland from April, once they have undertaken their yearly flight back from West Africa. 

The Rutland Osprey Project now have Live Webcams set up so that curious locals can find out more and track to progress of the active nests in the area. View the webcams here.

Maya and her mate, who can be seen on these webcams, have been breeding in the same nest since 2015 and have successfully raised over 20 chicks during that time. 

Now more chicks are being added to that tally.

The team Tweeted: "Fantastic news! This morning Maya revealed to us the first chick had hatched at 8:18am, 38 days after the first egg was laid."

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Fantastic news! This morning Maya revealed to us the first chick had hatched at 8:18am, 38 days after the first egg was laid. <a href="https://t.co/2ceJGavD8c">https://t.co/2ceJGavD8c</a></p>&mdash; Rutland Ospreys (@rutlandospreys) <a href="https://twitter.com/rutlandospreys/status/1656941259934539776?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 12, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Follow on the Live Youtube channel for more updates.

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