Well not unexpectedly the season came to an end on Saturday morning when the intruding male broke the final egg.
As EJ is still in brooding mode she is still spending a lot of time on the nest brooding non existent eggs.
It now remains to be seen what will happen next. A variety of things could happen but as always with ospreys they will usually surprise us.
I guess the only way to find out is to keep watching.
Tiger Signature
Morning everybody, thanks for all reports so far, and to Tiger for starting us off - also, Tiger, it was reassuring to read your positive remarks last night about EJ's well-being (with a comparison to broody chickens).
Going slightly off-piste, so to speak, I logged off early last night, so have just read yesterday's DU from about 8pm onwards.
The most striking thing was the OVERWHELMING defence of this thread, and the way it is conducted, in response to intemperate comments by a new poster. I felt a real sense of unity.
This is my first year as a member of this forum, but I "lurked" (as they say) extremely closely for the previous 4 seasons, so was already well acquainted with all the human and avian participants.
I decided to join partly because I thought I would learn more about birds by being a member, but mainly because I liked the way the forum was run - some extremely knowledgeable participants, some less so, but ALL, almost without exception (like last night), showing mutual respect, consideration and support for each other. And last but not least, huge amounts of (often very witty) humour.
Perhaps last night's poster should go and vent his spleen somewhere else (there are plenty of online options where vitriol is the order of the day), because as far as I'm concerned, this is what a forum SHOULD be like - informative, funny, and above all, polite.
I'm not convinced OC is man enough for a bird as mature as EJ. I know other young birds have successfully stepped up to the mark but I'm not sure he's going to be one of them.
Our herring gulls are red listed birds. Think about that the next time you hear some flaming idiot calling for a cull of them.
Oldshoremore, it's great to see you - especially when you're expressing such lovely sentiments! I'm so glad you gave up lurking.
Good morning OSM. What a lovely supportive post. Thank you :)
I was a lurker for many years before joining in. This forum enhances my enjoyment and love of Ospreys. The members for the most part are very friendly, and we support each other through the hard times, and they don't get much harder than this week. I've shed more than one tear over this nest.
Birdie Num Num's brilliant DU summary 2017
Am I the only one who just dived straight in to start posting? It seems impossible that just over three years ago I needed to ask on the main blog 'is that EJ?'.
Clare Bailey said:Oldshoremore, it's great to see you - especially when you're expressing such lovely sentiments! I'm so glad you gave up lurking
You're clearly more disciplined than me - I'd never be able to work from home, there are just too many distractions.
Clare Bailey said: I'm not convinced OC is man enough for a bird as mature as EJ. I know other young birds have successfully stepped up to the mark but I'm not sure he's going to be one of them.
moffer said:I was a lurker for many years before joining in. This forum enhances my enjoyment and love of Ospreys. The members for the most part are very friendly, and we support each other through the hard times, and they don't get much harder than this week. I've shed more than one tear over this nest.
EJ is getting quite excited. Is there a fish in the offing?