Horray! I have created a temporary fix for the Wigotwn Bay Oprey Website!

Hello Ian - again  :)

Well, now I know you are here with such a superb site and lots of info I do assure you I'll be watching next year. I really didn't know Wigtown Bay Osprey site was a going concern !!!!

More power to you. The videos are WONDERFUL, thanks so much for those.

So EP is our handsome male Osp of the family , HD is the female and JD is the second hatched .   I am so very sorry to read about JC going missing after so short a time after fledging especially after the tragedy of the third chick. But to EP and HD it would be a ''successful'' nest and will bring them back next year (and no frustration nest building required).

Well done to you for all your doing for the Ospreys in your area and thanks for ''soldiering'' on without much support for your efforts.

Yes indeed, fingers crossed for his first migration. You wil keep us informed of what you can, won't you?. Maybe Wigtown Ospreys will one day wear a 'sat nav' so we can follow their  migrations as we do LG Ospreys.

I hope I'm replying to the latest BLog. And thank you for it.

Wow, I'm feeling so popular, two comments to reply to!

Alan, nice to hear from you. It's great for me to have some interaction on here, it makes the updates feel worth while. Please fell free to comment as much as you like. Cirrus and other osprey followers did offer gratefully received advice to my plea.

However, in the end it was dogged determination and trial and error that prevailed. Still, I'm very grateful to all who have encouraged me, especially Bill for solving so many of my technical problems and to Andy who is hopefully still trying to resolve the scrolling sidebar problem that I have with the website!

The biggest problem that I have had is that I am trying to use the existing Wigtown Bay Ospreys website, without the advice and guidance of the person who created it. I have a very limited understanding of websites, and a fairly short patience and attention span to try and get problems solved!

LadyBird, yes it was lovely to see H/D still feeding JD so late in the season, and I was really glad we had solved the technical issues of not being able to record the live CCTV feed. It may well be one of the last sightings of H/D; she was seen on Saturday, but no sign of her since.

The full 5-minute clip of H/D feeding can be found on YouTube, just search for Wigtown ospreys. It shows H/D happily feeding herself and JD obviously pestering her until she finally gives him a scrap (the 30-second clip I posted on the website), she then happily returns to feeding herself until sadly they are both disturbed from the nest by a passing quad bike.

As to your question about the other chick: we had three eggs, which hatched out on the 23rd, 24th and 26th May. Sadly, the third chick had a real struggle (almost a day) trying to break free from the egg membrane, which we speculate may have become waterlogged. When the chick finally did break free it looked exhausted, and sadly the next few days were poor weather so EP our male couldn't fish much and H/D had to sit tight to keep the chicks warm and dry. Any food that was brought in would have gone to the oldest two chicks first. We’re not sure exactly when the third chick died (probably about the 30th) due to H/D sitting tight and an inconvenient clump of stonecrop blocking the camera's view of the egg cup, but it was not seen again.

This left two chicks, and fortunately, the weather and the fishing improved. Our two remaining chicks grew fit and strong, and were ringed on Friday the 1st July. They were given blue Darvics with white lettering, they had JC, and JD, part of a series of rings used across the Dumfries and Galloway nests (NTS Threave had JE and JF), these letters became their names.

JD weighed 1.25kg, and was thought to be the day older male chick, and JD weighed 1.6kg and was thought to be the younger sister. This guess at sex seemed to be confirmed by the fledging dates, 15th July for JD (his 52nd day) and 19th July for JC (her 55th day).

The tragedy struck, JC went missing, she was last seen on the 22nd July, just three days after fledging and hasn't been seen since. General consensus is that she would be too young to have survived independently, so must be presumed dead. We had an appeal out for sightings through the local papers and even made the Scottish BBC web news, but nothing confirmed. We did have a report from a sailing boat that they had seen a large bird floating dead in the Bay but couldn't identify it.

Still, the good news is that nothing happened to JD and he is still doing well at present. Fingers crossed for his first migration!

Yaayyy!  Go Ian!  Thank you so much for uploading the video of H/D feeding JD!  Brilliant stuff!  Oh course he is old enough and shouldn't need Mum to feed him but whilst Mum's around why would you do it yourself?   A bit like Bynack at LG, lots of people said he was a Mummy's boy.  I think he was just making the most of her because he would not have that connection with her ever again.

Such a shame, through your plea for Cirrus, that I only just found you at the end of the Osprey season.  To be sure I will be following your Ospreys come March next year.  

Please keep us updated on when your Ospreys are last seen, i.e., starting on their migration.  

Also, if one of your three chicks sadly didn't make it early on, and JD is the last remaining chick  ... what happened to the other chick?  Off on his hols already?  (Migration?)  Sorry, lots of questions!

Thank you, most sincerely, for the link to your website and the updates and for everything you and team for for Ospreys :) :)

Hi Ian, thanks for updating the Wigtown Bay Ospreys website. I believe Cirrus and others on the LG blog were able to help you with uploading the clip to youtube. Although I have not commented here  before I do read your blogs and appreciate all that you do for the ospreys at Wigtown.