Those of you watching the webcam or who are on Facebook will have noticed that Oighrig fledged bright and early yesterday morning when most of you were in bed at around 5.25am.
Oighrig has been raring to go all weekend, putting all his energy into thrashing his young wings and often bashing his younger sibling, Breagh, on the head. He even generated enough power to lift himself a metre off the nest a few times. Each time he gained height we cheered him from the centre, holding our breath as he got higher, thinking this was the moment of truth, only for him to land back on the nest (or more often than not, on his brother’s back). However, rather than pleasing the crowds Oirhrig decided to wait until the wee small hours of the following morning and took his first leap of faith at 5.25am, Tuesday morning.
Gaining confidence in his wings he did a few laps around the nest and made his debut landing on a nearby tree. He took to the sky again, showing off a bit as he did a few more loops before an intruder knocked the confidence from him. He made a dash for the nest and didn’t take to the skies again for several hours.
Breagh on the other hand is apparently in no rush to fly just yet. Whilst Oighrig spent the weekend frantically flapping about the nest, Breagh lay flat, as if he had a bad case of vertigo – or probably trying his best to avoid a wing bashing from his brother. Clearly the less dominant of the two, Breagh was slow to grab the fish Odin dropped off this morning (250 of the season!) and looked on intently as Oighrig tucked into the trout, content in his new found independence. EJ eventually took pity and returned to the nest to feed the remains to her younger chick. Doing some wing exercises in the wind today, Breagh is showing signs of wanting to take flight but is doing so in his own time. Meanwhile, Oighrig is enjoying his new found freedom – will this encourage Breagh to take the plunge?