Daily Update ~Loch Garten Nest~ Sunday 22 April 2018

Clare Bailey said:

I am asking if this is common behaviour for EJ ie did she wing flap when Odin was approaching the nest?

I don't think she did.  She's still getting used to her young mate, though, and with a number of potential intruders in the area perhaps she's flapping to deter the wrong bird as she knows the right bird will land anyway.

[/quote]

I think this is an excellent interpretation of EJ's behaviour. Similar behaviour was noticed by EJ when she first encountered 'Henry'. After 10 days or so the wing flapping stopped and was replaced by a food soliciting call as she saw him approach the nest - even from afar - many seconds before he was visible to the human eye. I think it is quite possible that the female will eventually pick up on 'cues' from her male - for example the way in which he flies and also the direction from which he approaches the nest, and therefore be fairly certain that it is her mate approaching and not an intruder.

Some people think Ospreys are a matter of life and death. I don't like that attitude. I can assure them it is much more serious than that. 

I did notice that when the fish was delivered earlier today she didn't flap - she did her classic backing away move, which is what we're used to.

I just unearthed a study / analysis done of 12 years of data collected by the amazing volunteers at LG. It shows that while the female was incubating the average number of fish that the male brought to the nest that was shared by the female is a share in 5 fish every 2 days (a share in 2 and a half fish every day). I would have preferred to have seen this male bring more fish to the nest, particularly as EJ may well be in the process of producing another egg, but we shouldn't forget that she is spending most every day and all night on the nest, so she is expending very little energy.

There is no way of knowing, but it is likely I think that this is this male's first, or one of his first attempts at breeding and taking this into consideration I am fairly impressed so far by certainly his defence of the nest and alertness for intruders, and by the fact that on occasion he has incubated, even if his delivery of fish leaves room for improvement....... At the moment EJ does not need a huge amount of food and he has 30+ days to really get to know optimal foraging grounds around his territory before he hopefully will then need to prove his worth as a fisherman.

Off:

........ and back again:

scylla said:

took off the defence, will do it separately.

Worked very hard to sync the sound (the live stream is nearly one second behind the sound) and reduce background noise, then forgot to shorten it, then forgot to post it.  Here is the shortened version of Junior's defence and departure.

Is there another fish in sight, over in the trees? :)

Lots of shouting. Excited fish, fish give me fish

RSPB LG FB

EJ's new male seems to be learning fast and has been providing fish for his mate - not, perhaps, the biggest fish, but fish nonetheless He's also been taking the odd turn at incubating, which is all good news!

Fish tail delivery

She knows her lunch is coming

EJ prepares to take her meal away

Moffer:  Are your pics of the fish delivery that which happened earlier, 10.11, or has Junior brought in a second today?  It looks like the first one, which I assume is in relation to LG FB post?

EJ has been fish calling for the past five minutes, and 13.05 has flown....just a circuit and back again, landed and continues to call