Looking at the site at Rutland Water. Female having a turn of the eggs and now settling down again. Lovely and calm there as it is here in Northants.
Would be nice to do a diary for the MantonBay (Rutland) as update on other nests now takes ages to get to the end and update.
Do they have names for these two at MantonBay. Please note I have changed the name to Manton Bay (Rutland) nest updates as a suggestion from Sandy. Hope this meets with everyones approval.
http://scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk/things-to-do/wildlife-webcams/loch-of-lowes/
RSPB Giving Nature a Home
Just switched onto this camera to see the female doing a moonwalk, and hey presto, here's 5R arriving with a fish:
The reserve diary has been updated:
http://www.ospreys.org.uk/ReserveDiary2010.html
Just returned from a day at RW, where I had an extremely illuminating conversation with a member of the osprey team in Waderscrape Hide.
Back on 5th June I posted the following pic and comments:
At 2:45 pm I wrote:
"I thought it unusual that one of the chicks had got so close to the edge of the nest. Just checked again and dismayed to see the chick stuck in the same position (3 hours later). It clearly can't extricate itself from among the sticks at the side of the nest and the female doesn't know what to do about it."
Then at 4:39 pm:
"Panic over. The cam has been off lately, but now back on and clearly three chicks in the nest cup getting fed."
The camera was off for a reason - the chick had to be rescued from its predicament by members of the osprey team. They realised that there was no way that it was going to free itself and the adults couldn't help the situation, so they took the decision to intervene.
Hi Sandy. Its funny you should mention that because 2 weeks ago I had the same conversation with a volunteer in the same hide. Apparently Tim Mackrill had to climb up the ladder and free the chick. I dont know why I did not post that on here at the time.
Alan, I had more than an inkling at the time it happened (which is why I noted that the camera had been off in the second post that day). There was simply no way that the chick could have freed itself without a little help.
BTW I asked about ringing and it should take place sometime within the next week.
I also had a long chat about satellite tagging. Apparently they have the means to carry it out (though presumably not this year) as someone is keen to sponsor it. They are a little wary of tagging chicks because of the low success rate of migrating juveniles and are looking at catching and tagging at least one adult. Roy Dennis has given them a demonstration of the techniques involved but they wouldn't be drawn on the details of where and when this might happen (I got the impression that their plans were thrown out by the unfortunate disappearances of 32 and 06 earlier this year).
I should add that they are absolutely delighted with the progress of the nest at Manton Bay and I could feel their anticipation of the juves fledging in a couple of weeks time.
Pic taken this afternoon of the female persuading 5R to go fishing (which he did soon afterwards):
Thanks Sandy. I am looking forward to all the ringing and weight statistics from all the various sites.
Completely forgot to mention that some of the Rutland Water Osprey Team are off in the Winter looking for ospreys in Senegal and Gambia (it's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it!).
Not been on for a while so catching up. Been taking snaps from webcam though. Thanks Sandy for all that info re possible tagging but definite ringing. Super pic of the nest from a different angle. The one we get on the comp;makes it look like its just above the water but of course it isn't , its much higher.
Not bad, the expedition to Africa to look for ospreys. they should love it.
Glad to see the youngsters are progressing well, these parents have done all right for their first year (am I right in thinking that)?
While we shouldn't count our chicks until they've fledged successfully, you're quite right, Lynette, that the parents have done a great job so far.