Osprey Chat Thread for April 2015

Writing this post has now become a monthly ritual. Last month I wrote about how by now all the various ospreys would be back back and they would all be starting to produce a new lot of little humbugs. Well I was very wrong as that is not how this season has progressed at all.

The year 2005 was a horror year in that an awful lot of ospreys did not come back. The thing was that there was no social media in 2005 and we were not so aware of what was happening as we are now. Nowadays the power social media makes us more aware of what is happening on a almost minute to minute basis.

Anyway from the 15 March the great osprey watch was on.  Then first two days did not yield any ospreys. However late on 17th March we heard that the great patriarch of Rutland viz 3 (97) was back. There was a great sigh of relief as he was injured last year and people wondered if he would be back. 

The feeling was that the birds would start rolling in at an ever increasing rate. Well nothing could be further from the truth. Day after day has passed and the only thing remarkable is the paucity of the ospreys.

There have been the odd good day but they been few and far between. On 19th March the Glaslyn female arrived and most people thought that 11 (98) would not be far behind. Well not so, there is no sign of him and he is now roughly 12 days late and getting later by the minute.

Neither  EJ or Odin have appeared either. Lots of the countdown clocks are turning red and look like screens in the stock market on the infamous Black Monday.

There is the odd crumb of comfort. The tracked birds like Blue XD, Beatrice, 30 (05) are all on their way but making heavy weather of it in their various ways. 

We hope that weather is the explanation for this strange situation and that the ospreys will all begin to arrive soon. Otherwise 2015 will long be remembered as a calamity year.

There is the odd ray of hope. The partner of 3 (97) did turn up on the 24 March. Also the Loch of the Lowes male turned up on time on 21 March. Yesterday he was joined by a new female. So at least we have two pairs of ospreys.

We await developments with great interest.