There is no easy way of breaking the news of Odin’s disappearance. He is still missing and despite hoping that he will return, it is looking less likely that we will see him again. After a few days of relative peace at the nest, with intruding ospreys becoming less frequent, we thought things had settled. However, this sadly has turned out to not be the case.
Odin was last seen at 7.51am on Tuesday 5th May. At 7.22 am he brought a fish for EJ when an intruder suddenly appeared. He quickly dropped the fish by EJ and pursued the assailant. At 7.51am he briefly landed on the nest but the intruder was still in pursuit, so he took to the sky again and we haven’t seen him since. We have no idea how old Odin was. Having been with us for seven seasons, he could be aged anything between 10 and 25! Could it be that he was old and these birds knew that he was an easy target?
The nest has seen three intruders in particular over the past few weeks. One, who seems to be the dominant of the three, is an unringed bird (pictured below). The second has a metal BTO ring and the third has a blue colour ring. Since Odin’s disappearance the unringed bird has been doing his best to stake his claim on the nest, and has successfully stopped the other two from landing at the nest. Much to EJ’s annoyance, he has perched on the nest regularly and even took a moment to move sticks around at one point. He has also made a few clumsy, unsuccessful attempts to mate with her, but EJ has remained firm on her eggs.
Unringed male intruder
With Odin gone, EJ is obviously without her provider of food. The new, unringed male brought a fish on Wednesday 6th May and at around 19.13 EJ took it from him, shooed him off the nest and ate it at the nest. He has again brought her a fish this morning but has not yet given it to her. He showed up just before 10am and flew around, showing it off to her and skydanced for a few minutes before perching near the nest and started to eat it. He did eventually bring it to the nest but he soon flew off with it again before EJ had a chance to grab it. As I write she is loudly food soliciting as he continues to perch nearby with the fish.
Odin has been a fantastic male, who has raised 15 chicks, including the 100th chick and Breagha, who continues to do well in Senegal. He made a name for himself when he first arrived in 2009 when he went missing for a few days due to an incident with fishing line. He had us all worried as the chicks on the nest were left without fish but he eventually returned. And when he did, he brought his record number of fish in a day to the nest – 9 fish! He has made us all laugh with this love for large sticks, sometimes bigger than he can handle. Often dropping them on EJ’s back, and sometimes clumsily on the eggs! The last photo we took of him, he was entertaining us as he comically sat with his tail over EJ’s head.
EJ and Odin
We are all devastated to have lost Odin, we were all extremely fond of him, as I’m sure many of you were too. And there is a lot of uncertainty as to what will happen next, with three eggs on the nest and a new male looking to move in. Whatever happens, it will be a new chapter in the Loch Garten saga and as we all know, the lives of these birds are always filled with highs and lows and all we can do is look on in in amazement as they struggle through whatever nature throws at them.
UPDATE: Since posting the unringed male has brought the fish to the nest and EJ has flown away with it. He has now kicked out one egg and cracked the other.