A Cumbrian osprey has been spotted on the West African coast.

The four-year-old Osprey, tagged as Blue V8, was one of two chicks that fledged from Cumbria Wildlife Trust's Foulshaw Moss nature reserve in 2016.

Some 4,000 miles from where it hatched, the male bird of prey was seen at Tanji Bird Reserve in The Gambia by bird guide Fansu Bojang, who regularly guides British birdwatchers in search of UK colour-ringed ospreys.

Paul Waterhouse, reserves officer at Cumbria Wildlife Trust, said: “This is very exciting news indeed and we are very grateful to Fansu for letting us know about it.

"We know that the osprey chicks which hatch in Cumbria face a long and arduous migration to West Africa when they are about five months old, and sadly as many as 60 to 70 per cent don’t survive this first journey.

"We know their survival chances are very slim so we’re really pleased to hear that Blue V8 is thriving four years on.”

Osprey chicks are tagged at about three months old and Paul explained why this is so important.

“These leg tags enable us to identify the birds individually, keep track of their movements and understand their life history, as with this sighting of Blue V8," he said.

"They are fitted with metal BTO rings, as part of the national bird-ringing scheme, and also a plastic colour ring which allows individual birds to be identified in the field using a telescope or telephoto camera.”

V8 has returned to the UK at least once since his first migration, photographed in 2019 at Leighton Moss.

Osprey pair Blue 35 and White YW started nesting at Foulshaw Moss Nature Reserve in 2014.

Since then they have successfully raised 18 chicks – eight males and 10 females.

Paul and his colleagues are hoping that the breeding pair will return again this year and the trust is working to get the live osprey webcam up and running once again.

You can make a donation at: https://www.cumbriawildlifetrust.org.uk/wildlife/cams/osprey-cam