….and what a first day back it’s been! Our three young ospreys seem to be coming along at a fantastic rate. While I’ve been away, one of them has managed to catch a fish! On Monday, at 05.59, EJ brought in a 16’’ rainbow trout. Two chicks were around and they ‘shared’ the fish between them. After EJ had headed off, leaving the two to their squabbles, the third chick arrived at 06.06, with an 8’’ trout!! Obviously we didn’t see this fish being caught, but it wasn’t brought in by one of the adults. This is incredible news as usually juvenile ospreys are expected to find their own way to Africa, without even having caught a fish before they leave! Last year, we saw Rothes with wet feet and then with a fish that didn’t seem to match any deliveries from the adults. Rothes then surprised us all by being the first to leave on her migration. Just warning you a similar thing may happen again, this year. These chicks seem much more advanced than last year’s.
Yesterday saw another unexplained fish delivery at 06.40. So far today, there have been five fish – four from EJ and one from Odin. The running total since hatching now stands at 386! The chicks seemed to think Odin was an intruder, alarm calling and mantling! They obviously remember him stealing the un-eaten fish that EJ had her eye on yesterday. She didn’t look impressed!
Our visitors today were treated to a great view of the pine marten kit eating from the squirrel feeder! It’s a really good size now, but still has a rather less bushy tail. Maybe you will see it after we switch cameras when our ospreys leave. I’m not wanting to think about that though! We’ve also seen a crossbill, a crested tit and lots of red squirrels. It’s tough coming back to work!
Sorry if you feel we’ve not been answering your questions. I didn’t see many yesterday and wonder whether they are being posted on another page. We only really have time to check the community page.It does sound possible that the female osprey flying near that other nest is trying to tempt the youngsters to fly and follow her, but we haven’t seen that happen here.
We are all looking forward to the Loch Garten Bloggers visit! Hope you are all ready to take over the presentations! Although we are really grateful for all the goodies we’ve received, we thought you may like to consider joining the RSPB, on your visit, instead of bringing gifts. If you are already a member, then the membership makes a great gift. We have the last remaining osprey prints!