Good Afternoon Bloggers!
It's been a pretty exciting week here on Abernethy - well as exciting as things can get without having osprey chicks! EJ has been around the nest on various perches, preening and munching on fish as she always does. We have had a few intruding ospreys around and we have had a number of visits from our favourite male osprey - George! Intruder 'Blue NU7' appeared back on the camera tree, after last being sighted at Loch Garten on 20th April (hatched 2015 Loch Ness area). He didn't hang around long, however flew off in a northerly direction with EJ. George has been around and has been attempting to mate with EJ. Maybe he is trying to create a stronger bond with her? Maybe he is still absolutely clueless... it's anyone's guess at this stage!
Intruding osprey Blue NU7 on the camera tree at Loch Garten.
We were told of a pretty comical encounter with an Osprey at Rothiemurchus fishery on Monday, although at first it was thought EJ was the osprey in the original images, turns out it isn't her and is actually an unringed bird. My apologies for reporting that it was EJ! We can still appreciate what an encounter and hats off to Andy Howard for getting some cracking shots. Poor ospreys - do they ever catch a break?
Osprey being mobbed by a female mallard at Rothiemurchus (Andy Howard Nature Photography)
Late on Monday evening into Tuesday morning a pine marten finally appeared back on the nest and helped him/herself to all three of EJ's unhatched eggs. I can imagine they won't have tasted or smelled very good considering they were well past their use by date (roughly 4 weeks since they should have hatched)! You can see footage of the eggs being taken here.
Pine Marten helping him/herself to EJ's egg.
Wandering down to Loch Mallachie on our Two Loch's trail provides a great opportunity to see wildlife and birds throughout the year. However, this week we were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of a newly fledged crested tit with two adults. Hopefully this means it won't be too long before the famous cresties are back visiting our bird feeders! Speaking of youngsters, we were lucky enough to see a very young red squirrel scavenging seeds from the ground at the kiosk. He/she was very wary and alert compared to the adults who always seem slightly at ease around us. We have also been seeing spotted flycatchers, tree creepers and goldeneye ducks regularly on the Two Loch's trail. There were also reports of not one but TWO pine martens encountering one of our visitors on the path - you just never know what you might come across and it's always worth a trip into the wilderness!
Female mallard with three ducking's on Loch Garten.
As always, thank you for taking the time to read the blog updates! I hope you enjoyed this one!
Emma!
And since there hasn't been one yet - a token pic of our girl EJ with a decent sized fish on Tuesday morning. She was struggling to balance on the camera tree as it's been super windy and has preferred the perches behind the nest that are a bit lower down this week!
EJ on the camera tree with a fish.