At Coombe Gallery, Mark is delighted at the return of the once locally extinct osprey to the river Dart and is championing the Devon Osprey Project.

These spectacular, fish-eating birds of prey dive from high above the water, wings half-folded, throwing their talons forward to snatch a salmon or mullet from the river. Superbly adapted, their feet have tiny spines to grip the fish, while a transparent third eyelid shields their eyes from impact.

In Devon ospreys are currently birds of passage, visiting to feed before migrating in autumn to west Africa. Each bird migrates alone, reuniting at the nest the following year. Devon Osprey Project is installing platform nests to attract prospecting birds, encouraging these magnificent creatures to breed here again after 200 years’ absence.