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.
Tiger Signature
Oh Rats ! I've tried to edit and it won't. Zaragoza - it's up north
I see the weather in Spain is improving and all its bad weather is now in France . No improvement there until Sunday / Monday. So our beloveds may well be another week behind. What will that do to the breeding season I wonder. Still Monty and Glesni breed 'late'. We should still be OK shouln't we?
Tiger: thanks for the map, it does give us a better idea of XD's location.
Also I've just noticed when checking the Osprey News Bulletin the others who will be editing along with your good self. So a huge thank you to Chloe, Pan Hal and Joanna Dailey for this.
Unknown said: I see the weather in Spain is improving and all its bad weather is now in France . No improvement there until Sunday / Monday. So our beloveds may well be another week behind. What will that do to the breeding season I wonder. Still Monty and Glesni breed 'late'. We should still be OK shouln't we?
que sera sera
Karen W said: Tiger: thanks for the map, it does give us a better idea of XD's location. Also I've just noticed when checking the Osprey News Bulletin the others who will be editing along with your good self. So a huge thank you to Chloe, Pan Hal and Joanna Dailey for this.
May I point out that ChloeB, Pan Hal and Joanna have been helping me for about a year.
Also CC and chocoholix helped out with similar bulletins when ChloeB and I was on holiday.
Forgot to say I went to another well know nest in Speyside at the weekend for a look and there were no ospreys back there either. I think they normally are by now.
Beatrice and Blue XD updated.
Thanks Tiger for the intro. Fingers crossed for them all to arrive safely.
Kind regards, Ann
Hazel b said: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 .
.
One area you will be all familiar with was the nest in Wales - In 2005 when we had that very bad spring migration weather it desimated 50% of nesting pairs in Wales and it took six years until 2011 to recover back to the pre 2005 numbers.
Dont be alarmed - the nesting pair from 2004 at Welshpool both failed to return that 2005 year. They were the 2004 parents of the first born osprey in Wales in recent times. The male was a translocated RW 07/97 and female a ringed bird from The Black Isle.
However that was the same year that 11/98 and his partner at Glaslyn had their first succesful nest after their failing in 2004 when the nest was displaced.
So in 2005 we still had one successful nest remaining.
In 2005 the birds in Scotland nesting took a big dip - Roy often mentions this in his statistics - however we did not follow so many birds and nests so closely so it is difficult to make any comaparrisons.
Now out of any bad news comes good news and it gives young adults the chance of a nest maybe for the first time and a new dynasty so like Tiger mentions in his last line I also look forward to developments with interest.
Unknown said:Dont be alarmed - the nesting pair from 2004 at Welshpool both failed to return that 2005 year. They were the 2004 parents of the first born osprey in Wales in recent times. The male was a translocated RW 07/97 and female a ringed bird from The Black Isle.
Well Welshpool nest in 2004/5 is shrouded in mystery.
The female bird was Red 6J although I think it was initially thought to be Red 8J
Although the original report on the Rutland website said that the female was from the Black Isle in other places she was said to be from Perthshire. Indeed Roy Dennis in "Life of ospreys" gets that wrong and describes her as a green ringed bird as far as I remember.
There is also confusion over what happened in 2005. I have heard that the male came back, but not the female and vice versa.
On the bottom of page 30 of "Ospreys in Wales" Emyr Evans states that the male returned in 2005 but the female Red 6J did not.