Isn’t the nest coming along nicely? Odin has had his work cut out for him this year, with a great big pine marten sized hole to fill in and a lot of greenery to remove. It looks like The Hole issue has been resolved by filling it in with a variety of moss, lichens and sticks. It is still deep enough for Odin, the clumsier of the two, to fall into it on occasion, and yesterday EJ dropped a fish into it, causing her to spend a good part of the day trying to retrieve it. However, it looks as though The Hole will become the egg cup that EJ will lay into. Our first egg is expected to be here by the weekend, ospreys lay their first egg roughly 12 days after they start mating. I would put my money on Saturday for the first egg but after we ALL lost our bets on EJ’s arrival this year, I’m going to keep my money in my pocket this time!
Romance is in the air at Loch Garten, with Odin fetching stick after stick for EJ (the osprey equivalent to a bunch of flowers) and the nest. Odin is well known for bringing in sticks bigger than he can sometimes handle, and this year hasn’t been any different. Some have been dropped onto EJ’s back, others he has tripped himself up with, and some he just can’t seem to fit into the space he wants. Each stick is followed by a mating attempt, many of them being successful and so we are now sitting patiently waiting for a nest full of eggs. Ospreys lay their eggs two or three days apart and usually lay a clutch of three eggs, so it’ll be well into next week before we can expect a full clutch.
Odin (left) and EJ (right)
We had some issues with the sound shortly after EJ returned, which we have now fixed. Sorry for the down time! Last year the wire for our microphone was chewed by something, and so the wire was replaced before the microphone was installed this year. When sound went down again this year, we were concerned that the wire had been chewed again. Thankfully, though, the issue was one that we could fix from the centre. We use an aerial to connect with the microphone, and the trees have grown up between the centre and the osprey nest, causing us to lose signal. We were able to reposition the aerial at the centre to give us a better signal, and hey presto, we have sound again. So turn your speakers up again people, EJ has a lot to say!
Breagha still continues to do well in Senegal, travelling around his usual territory.