Osprey Chat Thread for August 2014

It is hard to believe it is the last month of ospreys for most nests. Yes the big flight south is about to begin. Indeed the female at Threave is reported as having left on 24 July. My view is that she probably went on sabbatical and will look in again just to check that Black 80 is looking after the bairns.

In 2004 EJ left the nest on 31 July before chick #3 had fledged. She did come back transiently and was last seen on August 10 2004.

The big question in everyone's mind is when will the Loch Garten family leave. Well we have good data for  EJ and  Odin   They both tend to leave in the third week in August.

Ok the graph that none of you want to see is the migration chart   

Millicent is 76 days old today and enters the migration window on Monday. Fortunately we can follow her all the way to Africa as she carries a satellite tag. 

Then there is Loch of the Lowes. Lady still there but will probably be gone within the week. Will we see her again? I guess we should find out at the end of March 2015.

Glaslyn has been routine in bringing up three healthy chicks that are now ready to head south.

Dyfi has had its excitement with Gwynant fledging at 49 days. Surely one of the most handsome ospreys ever?

Kielder has provided huge excitement too. If anyone ever asks you if you have ever seen all three chicks in the nest fledge in one day? Then the answer is  Kielder 1 in 2014. Three very big chicks thunder skywards on the same day.  

Three of the Kielder juveniles are tracked and we get to follow them south. This will be the first time ospreys carrying 11 (98) genes are tracked that we know of. 

The Nelson nest in British Columbia provided more drama. Nellie (the female) stopped taking fish from the platform and the final chick  Nel was rescued to be placed in rehab where it still is.

Then there was mumzilla the female at Woods Hole who gained the reputation of being the baddest mum in Ospreyland. Well the good news is that her three chicks did fledge.

Rob Bierregaard did a question and answer session on osprey where he answered questions on many aspects of ospreys including that old chestnut of juveniles and fishing.  See  Q&A  video on ospreys by Rob Bierregaard 

So a last hurrah and then the long wait begins for their return in 2015.