It seems only yesterday that we were waiting on the ospreys to arrive and now some of them are probably winging their way south. By the end of August most of them will be gone.
Odin and EJ have continued to thrill as they play out their failed season. Hopefully they will both be back in 2016
It has been disappointing that Breagha stayed in France rather than come home to say hello to mum and dad.
Not so with White 14 at Bassenthwaite. After an incredible journey he arrived home to Bassenthwaite and was photographed. A new superhero is born.
All the young ospreys fledged at Loch of the Lowes but FR4 did take her time.
Also a complete fledge at Manton Bay but once again the third chick taking its time.
No such delay at Dyfi. All three chicks fledged fledged in less than four hours with two almost going simultaneously.
Meanwhile the late chicks at Glaslyn continue to grow and and are winning all the cute birds competitions.
I am afraid that it will soon be time to start looking at the countdown clocks.
Tiger Signature
Tiger - I think the cameras on some nests such as Kielder - Glaslyn - Dyfi and Rutland along with others has helped a great deal in identifying ringed returnees.
More focal length lenses out there and stations such as Gordon's in Aviemore all have contributed.
ARAN - I would have said a few years ago Scotland but not sure if and how many non ringed birds are around that may have originated elsewhere.
I have also come to the conlusion we can do little - once these young birds have left the nest. I doubt if we can regulate anything that may have saved any of the lost birds that were followed.
Friends believe the Welsh Osprey population could increase by a new breeding nest every year from now on, and with lots of nests up already, we could soon have a viable population.
Unknown said:Friends believe the Welsh Osprey population could increase by a new breeding nest every year from now on, and with lots of nests up already, we could soon have a viable population.
You could well be right. I now happen to believe that we may be doing translocations all wrong. The Welsh population has its origins in two birds being effectively translocated to Wales.
In my view translocations would work better if the birds were more spread out. The main problem seems to be getting that first nest established. There are plenty of ospreys around but they do not want to invest time and effort in places where there is no evidence of successful nesting.
Look at Urdaibai. They got four birds back already. Now that could form the nucleus of a breeding population right now.
The intrinsic problem with ospreys is that they tend to cluster around an initial successful nest. However this means that before long the problem that was trying to be solved recreates itself.
What could be lost by translocating say 12 chicks to East Anglia one year and Wales the next and maybe Poole the next. In my view this would work much better in the long term than these big translocations.
These places often do have have transient populations of ospreys but they do not have that seed to encourage them to make these places their home.
The ways things are going we will never see another translocation in Britain.
Hazel b said: What could be lost by translocating say 12 chicks to East Anglia one year and Wales the next and maybe Poole the next. In my view this would work much better in the long term than these big translocations. These places often do have have transient populations of ospreys but they do not have that seed to encourage them to make these places their home. The ways things are going we will never see another translocation in Britain.
Cornwall are trying...( see the Fowey update below)
"Roy Dennis visits the Tamar Estuary(2012)Roy Dennis, one of the world’s leading osprey experts,gave a talk to a packed audience at the Tamar ValleyCentre by Cornwall Wildlife Trust to launch the Tamar EstuaryOsprey Project, an ambitious project led by the Trustto help establish breeding osprey in the Tamar Estuarycomplex. Over the coming months the Trust will beworking with landowners and partner organisations toidentify potential sites to build osprey nesting platformsaround the estuary complex.".....................................and Fowey group here 2015 and update here
Hazel b said: What could be lost by translocating say 12 chicks to East Anglia one year and Wales the next and maybe Poole the next. In my view this would work much better in the long term than these big translocations.
I think there is a snag with this idea Tiger. To do any translocation, you have to create a certain infrastructure including building hacking cages, and putting in place a team of people to protect and monitor the chicks while they are in the cages and after fledging, while they are still dependent. These resources may not be "portable" around the country and if you don't get nesting, your efforts will have been in vain.
It may not be necessary to have such large-scale projects as were done at Rutland and in Andalucia though. The Italian project is a case in point. They translocated a total of 33 chicks 2006-10. In 2011, they had the first successful nest (between a translocated male and an unringed female), but also had to stop the translocations, because the small donor population in Corsica had a run of relatively unsuccessful nesting seasons. Despite this, with the original nest being productive every year, a second nest started in 2014, and I think I have seen reports of a third one this year.
Italian project site
I remember something about 'plastic' ospreys being ''strewn '' arougn similar 'nests' somewhere south and they got pecked 'to death' by crows and so on. Thanks KATE - the nest bases don't look particularly large to me though. Fingers crossed!
Unknown said: I remember something about 'plastic' ospreys being ''strewn '' arougn similar 'nests' somewhere south and they got pecked 'to death' by crows and so on. Thanks KATE - the nest bases don't look particularly large to me though. Fingers crossed!
Problem is that none of them have ever been adopted by an osprey as far as I know.
Hazel b said:Problem is that none of them have ever been adopted by an osprey as far as I know.
This one is still in early stages
"Osprey Nidification commenced on Thursday 3 September 2015 reports Stuart Young who went over with Peter Edwards to watch the work in progress:"
I am reading the comments regarding translocation with interest and will digest and comment later.
However for now I have a question that may have been posted previously but may have missed.
Friends of the ospreys reported
Blue 24, an Osprey on one of the nests in mid Wales, Managed to lay eggs but was unsuccessful, she mated with a bird from another nest nearby but could only manage 6 days of incubation , She then had to leave the nest to feed herself, the male bird that she mated with had his own nest, with eggs that was expecting to hatch any day,
Friends still report only 4 breeding nests in Wales in 2015 so who was the other breeding male with the nest. Is Monty or Dai Dot responsible for Blue 24 eggs - we know she mated with both before Glesni came back - is Monty the culprit.
Does anyone have the answer.
Keith
I don't have any additional information, but I understood Friends of the Ospreys to mean that the male who Blue 24 borrowed was Monty.
I believe that these comments have been considered incorrect in certain quarters, but Tiger may have more information.
Birdie's DU Summaries 2018 https://www.imagicat.com/