DAILY UPDATE ~ Loch Garten nest ~ Friday, 11 May 2018

EJ stood, and flew (no effort) in the wind.

Sticks flying and landing on EJ

Poor girl waits a few minutes before moving them with a shrug.

It's still very windy.

The 'crop drop' motion

What a mess her nest is in :o((

just caught up on all posts. sad news up at loch arkaig. nature in the raw. situation with EJ is getting no better the quicker she leaves the nest the better off it will be, as I feel we may get a younger osprey in there and still produce a clutch. as for the PM at loch arkaig that was my biggest fear for EJ when the season began and I was assured by other people on this site that ospreys were as aggressive as they need to be. apperantly not? if the pm had got into a goshawks nest it would have been killed why? ospreys catch fish and don't no how to kill whereas a gos would have put 1 foot on its head and crushed the brain the problem with us[humans] we name them once you give something a name you humanise it. lets call the pm lady she got 3 kits starving then lady brings home 3 eggs good old mum doesn't look so bad now does it? thanks for post well done

Unknown said:

situation with EJ is getting no better the quicker she leaves the nest the better off it will be, as I feel we may get a younger osprey in there and still produce a clutch.

In previous years when a clutch has failed, EJ will fish for herself, but return to protect HER nest. I don't think another (especially young) female would stand a chance of raising a brood at LG this year.

Unknown said:

my biggest fear for EJ when the season began and I was assured by other people on this site that ospreys were as aggressive as they need to be. apperantly not?

Did you miss this post on April 21 when EJ and the Pine Marten came face to face.

Here is just a snapshot taken by BNN

EJ lost her eggs to a PM when she was young, and before she came to LG. She learned from the experience!

Haha! Not to worry, Jane :-)

Oh dear, for the umpteenth time.  What a day.  I have been sitting here for what seems hours watching EJ being buffered and blown, and reading the two threads.

Wise words spoken by George Anderson and Jess.  Initially, I thought Tiger's suggestion worth exploring (and CRinger's comments), but having read the two posts from WT and RSPB I agree with them.  Were it in the 1990s or even in the first part of the 2000s, when numbers were still growing, I feel the decision might have been different - as happened at Rutland.  The number of unringed intruders that have been seen, perhaps not so much this year, surely indicate their numbers are rising and those that do, are unable to check, climb and ring all nests by any stretch of the imagination.

I am in awe of EJ.  Thanks Moffer for reminding us how EJ dealt with, and has in the past, the Pine Marten that had the temerity to dare come to the nest when she was there.  Aila on the other hand for two years running has been badly spooked in the middle of the night.  Last year by the tawny and this by the PM.  Despite this she and Louis raised a wonderful chick, Lachlan, who hopefully will be seen around next year.

I may be in awe of EJ, but I am totally baffled by GJ.  How did he change from the two whopper fish deliverer, not forgetting the one brought, but for some reason not accepted by EJ, and from being the enthusiastic incubator and defender, to what we see now?   All in just ten days.  Was he the male with the fish the VC spotted flying near by earlier?  I wonder in which direction he might have come, and to where he was flying.  Time to explore the forests and do some sleuthing with the bins, or just sitting patiently watching.

It is such a windy day, and yet the forecasts, plural, I looked at suggested a light wind!  Perhaps it's the height of the nest that makes the difference, but I doubt it.

Oh, absolutely Moffer.  No way will EJ just leave, at least until near her natural departure date.

I have to go out for a while.  BBL