Loch Arkaig web cam: It will be switched back on next month, and should be found here
Here are "All the best bits from the Loch Arkaig Pine Forest osprey camera, Summer 2017, in 2.5 minutes", from the Woodland Trust.
Here is the RSPB Forum for the 2017 Season.
2008 A pair may have started nesting at Loch Arkaig
2013 Chick White KL(09) f, hatched 2009 Loch Arkaig, Inverness seen in Senegal, 2011 & 2012, 2016 by Rutland team and Chris Wood. 2013 is the likely first breeding year at Bassenthwaite of White KL(09) and unringed male
2015 No chicks
2016 No chicks
2017 The nesting platform used by the birds for more than ten years has been rebuilt almost from scratch as, with the birds adding new material every spring, it was beginning to sag under its own weight
Unringed m 10 April named Louis m arrived. Inconclusive whether same 10-yr male, but later concensus was that he was a first-time breeder
Unringed f 30 May new unringed female accepted by Louis
4 May 2017 WT named her Aila
10 May 17.20 Egg #1 Arrives with a grunt from Aila!
22.39 Owl on the nest. Spooked Aila who flew off. A slow start but the action is here.
13 May 19.26 Egg #2 - speckled
Egg #3
18 June First chick hatched
18 June 17.13 Second chick seen struggling out of shell
22 June Two chicks alive, just.
One chick survived, and was ringed 22 or 23 July. Blue JH4(17) m, Lachlan
At 35 days old it has a body mass of 1,305g and wingspan of 291mm.
9 August Lachlan fledges unexpectedly
The Loch is home to otters (three orphans were released in the late autumn 2017) Pine marten have been seen on the nest. WTE and Osprey breed. It's about time I tried to get back there!
Where is Loch Arkaig?
Birdie's DU Summaries 2018 https://www.imagicat.com/
GREAT news that Louis is back. He must have heard me telling him to flap harder. :-). So wonderful they are both back On the same day.
EJ's Memorial Balgavies Loch Ospreys 2023
A (probably not completely accurate) summary of the activity today is:
Morning, Aila landed on the nest briefly. Later a female intruder, carrying a fish, landed but was chased off by Aila who arrived almost immediately behind.
Afternoon, Aila had a couple of visits to the nest, one of them being lengthy. Louis landed (not when Aila was there) but was on the nest for a very short time only. Nest is empty at the moment.
As neither of them are ringed, the above is not 100% conclusive & has not yet been officially confirmed by WT as far as I know.
Ian
Osprey on the nest.
(Incidentally, all that excitement yesterday went right over my head - I was asleep and didn't check the nest footage afterwards!)
IMAGICAT
It is not Louis, could be Aila but I am not convinced. Ian
Male, but not convinced it's Louis.
Seems shorter and more stout than Louis to me.
Hope WT able to confirm that it is Aila and Louis Certainly looks like Aila
I don't think the neckline is the same as Aila, but I could be wrong.
No wonder I'm running slow - CPU = 100%, I've got too much going on :(
I'm going to keep this post for:
CATCHUP 06 APRIL 2018
First landings (had to break up 1-hour recordings into 15-minute clips in order to find these, it doesn't augur well).
First, what looked like a male on-n-off PDQ, then maybe a female with fish 'chased' off by another:
"Female on nest 30 minutes, is it Aila?"
Three more osprey landings (female stands quite a while) plus Robin, almost unseen, singing us out :-*
I thought I could be guided by movements on the nest surface, but the dang wind was blowing 'soil' around. I could have missed quick ins and outs.
Scylla, based on your vid, sightings made yesterday & last week I think it possible that we have two males & two females around. Given that there are at least two other nests in the area & WT have built more platforms, this is feasible. But I am very confused. Ian