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/
First time I've seen the pair together. And he handed over the fish!
Unknown said:he handed over the fish!
That's good to read, Korky. As you know, I was engaged elsewhere ;)
Now I'm too tired to 'do' Aila and Louis but I will try to compile something later - Louis's shenanigans must be put on the record, this is how he started out last year!
IMAGICAT
Well that is good news! haha Korky I think you should watch more often because whenever I am watching he is mantling and not handing over the fish!
To be precise, he didn't exactly put it on a plate, presenting it with a smile and a bow. She just grabbed it off him and he didn't fight back!
The chat below the webcam picture on the website is very useful for catching up on events by the way
If anyone wants a picture postcard of Louis, scroll back to 19.10. He was standing on the end of the "tree" that he had brought to the nest and was very near to the camera. I would never describe him as majestic but that was about as close as he will get. Ian
Thanks Ian - here are some close ups of Lewis
.
and lastly
© The Woodland Trust, Loch Arkaig Osprey Project
Quite a treat seeing him so close to the cam and posing for us.
Did anyone catch the hefty twig that was brought in just over 2 hours ago....and the tussle to position it. Wore me out just watching. :-D
scylla said:Louis's shenanigans must be put on the record, this is how he started out last year!
Excuse the self-pitying whinge, but this has taken so long to do, due to crippled editor requiring long-winded technique and then crashing repeatedly despite that... and then the result being juddery, due, I think, to an irreparable fault on the recording laptop... I do hope some will find time to watch *whimper*.
Trying said: Did anyone catch the hefty twig that was brought in just over 2 hours ago....and the tussle to position it. Wore me out just watching. :-D
I caught sight of it, Trying, and made it my next job ;)
scylla said:I do hope some will find time to watch *wimper*.
I did! Now I know Scylla you are not one to try to deliberately blacken Louis' character (and huge thanks for your usual sterling efforts at videoing)....but he definitely did let Aila grab the fish at around 9.01/9.02am, just before I posted. But the fact that your video shows her coming back fishless at 9.06 shows she either dropped it or it was a teeny tiny morsel, left over (and eaten in a jiffy) from the whopper he originally landed on the nest with. I suspect the latter.