Maya & 33’s Record Breaking Season so far:
Maya surprised us when she arrived back 12 March, the earliest date ever recorded at a UK public nest.
Blue 33(11), not to be outshone, arrived two days later on 14 March, making this date the earliest known for a returning pair.
On 28 March Maya laid her first egg, becoming the earliest egg to be laid in a UK public nest beating the current record by 5 days!
And in the early hours of 31 March, Maya laid a second egg.
© Leicestershire & Rutland Wildlife Trust
Over the next few days we can expect Maya to lay another egg or perhaps she may lay another two! But let’s hope our record breaking pair enjoy a peaceful April and plenty of good weather while they incubate their precious eggs.
I edited my edit :D
ChloeB & Tiger's Osprey Data
Maya will not like this flying around!
Thankfully it flew on and has not appeared to have caused Maya any disturbance while incubating.
The EG, once more flies around the nest. Missed the capture there!
But I do hope 33 can get rid of it as they can be really vicious as we learned 2016 when they constantly attacked 51(11) and 3J(13) at Lagoon 4 resulting in the nest failing.
33 takes over from Maya who flies off quickly returning with some more fresh straw
picks at it
Those eggs are going to be lovely and toasty.
Maya has flown off again.
Karen W said: Morning Alison, Yes, you're right :-) Quite a surprise her laying a fourth egg but sadly four was not to be. But perhaps this year! I expect many of us are wondering - will she lay a fourth?
Morning Alison,
Yes, you're right :-) Quite a surprise her laying a fourth egg but sadly four was not to be.
But perhaps this year! I expect many of us are wondering - will she lay a fourth?
Thanks, Karen, for the confirmation regarding last year. Four chicks would be a tough job to raise, but then 33 is such a good provider that they could probably do it.
Edit: The water in Manton Bay is really brown - I wonder if this affects the ability to see fish?
Delighted to read Maya has laid her 3rd egg!
© Scottish Wildlife Trust - Loch of the Lowes
For anyone wondering about those 4 eggs last year. Here are last years stats: Manton Bay 2017
Thanks, Chloe. Very interesting.
Looks like the water level in the Nature Reserve is really high. It will be clearer beyond the bund which seperates the reserve from the reservoir. If they are really stuck there is always the fish farm at River Gwash.
Chloe - thanks for the link. Just for reference folks, a link to Chloe & Tigers Stats is included on the opening post so easy to find when pages move on :-)
Alison - Yes when the waters are brown it does make fishing difficult as the ospreys cannot see the fish. But fish is still plentiful here as they all know where Horn Mill is so they just nip over to the fish farm :-)