Not a very exciting title I know…but I think it pretty well sums up the past two days, during which we seem to have been more or less swimming in fish up on the nest!
I don’t know where to start with yesterday, it was so exciting, with eight fish in total and two delivered at once, all during fairly inclement weather! Here is a run down of yesterday’s key events;
03.59 – EJ tries to shelter the chicks from heavy rain and wind.
04.49 – Chicks try out early morning exercise moves.
04.55 – Odin arrives with breakfast – 9” brown trout.
05.08 – 07.55 EJ flies off to the south, and rests there, returning a few hours later. In the meantime, a chaffinch is spotted on the side of the nest forging, when it realises it is being watched intently by three chicks, it is understandably more than a little spooked and flies away!
08.45 – Odin delivers the second fish of the day.
10.20 – Odin delivers the third fish of the day & sees off an intruding osprey!
13.04 – Odin arrives with a 16”” brown trout – the fourth fish of the day!
14.40 – EJ flies off.
15.09 – EJ and Odin both return to the nest with fish, number five and six! EJ’s is at least 18”! One of the chicks eats Odin’s smaller fish, while EJ flies to the camera tree to feast on her enormous fish!
16.53 – Odin arrives with the seventh fish of the day. EJ returns, still carrying her enormous fish, difficult to tell which one they are eating!
And finally …. 21.55 Odin arrives with the eighth and final fish of the day! Phew… it makes you tired just writing it!
The feast of fish continues today, with Odin bringing in 5 fish so far, at 05.48, 08.56, 10.26, 12.25 & 16.15!
And now for a few hellos, as we have had several bloggers visiting the centre in recent weeks! It was nice to meet blogger Alison, here at the Osprey Centre, a few weeks back, who has sparked an interest in the Loch Garten ospreys amongst her colleagues at Stour Surgery. "Hi everyone". We hope you're all still watching and thanks for spreading the word Alison. It was great to meet Amy and Trevor when they visited the centre yesterday, and they were lucky enough to be in the Centre when EJ arrived with her giant fish! Quiet Lady it was lovely to meet you again, and thank you very much for the cake and shortbread! And John, I haven’t managed to meet you myself, but great to hear that you had a good time!
Just an aside, but judging by your comments, many more of you are planning to visit us in person in the coming weeks, which is great and we look forward to meeting you. Many of you will undoubtedly be RSPB members, but some, perhaps not. If not, then please consider joining RSPB here on site when you visit, or perhaps consider joining a family member, friend or neighbour, and take advantage of a free limited-edition print of an osprey by wildlife artist Andrew Hutchinson, free when you join us, by Direct Debit here on site only. Doing this is a great way to help the Team LG. Many thanks.
In the meantime…as always…we await the next fish…