MANTON BAY - MARCH 2018

The purpose of this thread is to record the day-to-day activity at the Manton Bay nest thus freeing up the Rutland Osprey Project 2018 thread for general news on all the other birds, nests and projects.

Details about the Manton Bay nest, including a table of the breeding data, can be found here.   

Last year we were thrilled to see both Maya and Blue 33(11) return within hours of each other on the 22 March and I am sure I speak for us all in wishing them both a safe journey home and for another successful season at Manton Bay. 

  • Good to see you Scylla and your clever pics. A very exciting time.

  • The chap I spoke to said I’d need to book in advance as they get very busy so I shall keep an eye on the site for dates then check against my work schedule, hopefully at least one date will fall on a day off. He also told me there were eight nesting pairs there last year!! WOW and they’re hoping for up to ten this year!  Makes my EJ seem a lonely girlie as and when she gets back to LG. (I volunteer for a week in the summer as a residential, makes a lovely holiday) here’s to the safe return of all our beloved birds

    Gilli

  • The dates for the cruises are available on the Rutland Water website already.  They tend to sell out every time.

  • Sandra, What a lovely story about taking a wrong turn and ending up at the Lyndon centre!  It must be fabulous to volunteer there.

    Although I'd seen Ospreys in various places over the years my mania with watching Ospreys also began in earnest in 2013, 5R's last year at Manton Bay.  There was a photo in the paper in Spring 2013 of Lady from Loch of the Lowes and I was intrigued with her age and her story.  Can't recall how that blossomed into watching both the LOTL and the Loch Garten webcams and becoming hooked with EJ, Odin and their chicks as well.  That was swiftly followed by becoming hooked on the Dyfi and Glaslyn nests and ever more nests since.  Although we'd heard about Birdfair, we'd never been, but I realised that if we went to Birdfair then we could see Ospreys in the flesh from the Rutland hides, Rutland being the closest Osprey nest to us (in west Surrey).  We managed to book a hotel in August 2013 a few miles from Rutland Water and we spent one day at Birdfair, followed by hiking to the Waderscrape hide to see the lovely 5R and his family.  I am so pleased that 2 of that year's brood have returned to the UK and I hope they both appear again this year.  Fingers crossed that one or both might also have a nest.  We'll be back in August to see the Manton Bay Ospreys but before then we have a trip booked to see the Dyfi and Gaslyn Ospreys earlier in the summer--can't wait!

    Kind regards, Ann

  • sparrowkin said:
    Makes my EJ seem a lonely girlie as and when she gets back to LG. (I volunteer for a week in the summer as a residential, makes a lovely holiday)

    Were you there in the first week of July, last year?

    Our herring gulls are red listed birds.  Think about that the next time you hear some flaming idiot calling for a cull of them.

  • scylla said:

    She's on and off the nest.

    Couldn't decide which cam to do, so here they are one after the other:

    Lovely blue now :)

  • Back onto nest.  I hope it's her!  Can't really tell at this time of the morning.

    Gone again.

  • On 'n off:

    .

    Tech question - do you see this when you refresh browser?  I'm wondering if it's just Opera that does it, or if it's the ospreys.org.uk website: