DAILY UPDATE ~ Loch Garten nest ~ Monday, 07 May 2018

Good morning everyone. I see that the frustration continues. Only 17 days until hatching.

Yesterday I saw a picture of  a young male osprey Blue  S2 (right leg) in the Netherlands. Now I know Blue S2, he was the second chick in the Manton Bay nest in 2015. He has a sister S1 who has been mooching around various places such as Poole.

Now who are their parents?  None other than Blue 33 and Maya. 

Now  2015 was the first year that Blue 33 raised chicks. So he got two out of two of his first chicks hatched back. What an amazing performance. He can retire at the age of seven with his life's work completed if he wants. 

So Blue 33 is close to being the perfect dad. His two chicks from 2016 may well be on their way north just now. 

It will be interesting to see how many returned chicks he has in the future.

Of course  his dad was the amazing  3 (97) and yet Blue 33 is already beating him in achievement.

On Saturday Maya and Blue 33 broke the record for the earliest known hatch in the UK. 

Not all ospreys are born equal. 

Comfort break

EJ has been giving soft periodic fish calls

scylla said:

I have it firmly fixed in my mind that EJ suddenly stopped responding to his mating attempts and that's when he stopped bringing fish.

Yes, for a while, I was thinking 'pay-related performance'. No nookie, no fish. No fish, no nookie. But which came first? Either way, males on other nests continue to provide fish long after the nookie has finished, and pre-hatching. I don't think we can even add in 'no fish, no incubating' to the theory as he's shown no interest. I'm hanging on to 'Dennis' from Tiger's post/link last night, who upped his game when the chicks were born. But can EJ hang on until then?

Fish calling, drowning out the Cuckoo

EJ is still calling every few minutes, so she must see GJ. I hope he's not scoffing a fish. Come on Junior, get your act together.

Good morning all, another day and another week. What will happen today. Will that George bring in some fish and start upping his game today then. I seem to be saying the same thing every day, but we can only keep on hoping and wishing for better things. Surley between our clever, dedicated, beautiful EJ and our new youngster George, together they can get in sinc and turn this around, fingers crossed. Away to do some chores, catch up later, when I hope to read he has taken in a whooper, have a good days Osprey watching.

Edit, Whoops, no not a Swan, a Whopper!

Radio Chaffinch is playing loud and long. EJ stopped calling about half an hour ago. It's raining now.

Morning ALL   Only popping in briefly, and I won't be around much for the next couple of days.

10.44/45  something flew past, right to left.  EJ barely looked up.  It has started to rain.  Do I take it EJ had no fish y'day, and only a couple of really short visits by GJ?

I found Tiger's comments and links last night really interesting, and to know that others have followed such situations before is strangely reassuring.  I too rather wish that GJ had kicked out the egg when he first saw it.  He looked very tempted as he stepped forward, but just wasn't brave enough or determined enough to do anything about it, or perhaps the instinct just wasn't there suggesting he hadn't come across such a situation before?