Loch Arkaig Ospreys/Woodland Trust - 2019

Loch Arkaig web cam should be found here - at the moment is is showing a video of the history of Aila and Louis, and I assume it will be live later in March. It's worth watching!

2008  A pair may have started nesting at Loch Arkaig

2009  Chick  White KL(09) f, hatched 2009 Loch Arkaig, Inverness seen in Senegal, 2011 & 2012, 2016 by Rutland team and Chris Wood.                

2013  The likely first breeding year of White KL(09)f and unringed male at Bassenthwaite 

2015   No chicks

2016   No chicks

2017   The nesting platform used by the birds for more than ten years has been rebuilt almost from scratch as, with the birds adding new material every spring, it          was beginning to sag under its own weight

Unringed m 10 April named Louis m arrived. Inconclusive whether same 10-yr male, but later consensus was that he was a  first-time breeder

Unringed f    30 April new unringed female, named Aila, accepted by Louis    

Aila laid three eggs, two chicks hatched but the second which had struggled out of the egg, died.  Blue JH4(17)m was named  Lachlan.       

2018  Both Aila and Louis returned, three eggs were laid, but on 11 May in the dark hours of the morning Aila left the nest to stretch her wings and a pine marten    appeared, and took one of the eggs.  Five minutes later, with Aila not having returned, the pine marten removed the second egg.  At 03.52 the pine marten        returned and removed the third and last egg.

Aila and Louis remained together, bonding, for the rest of the season, tending and defending the nest.

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On another nest, ca 2km away, a single chick was raised, Blue JH5(18), with an upside down ring. - does anyone know the sex?  

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On 21 January 2019 BBC News reported the death of Blue JH3(17)m, named Pean after another local glen.  Pean, hatched at another Loch Arkaig nest off the Woodland Trust land,.had been found on 28 December at the Marjal Pego-Oliva Nature Reserve, between Alicante and Valencia.  He had been electrocuted.  A sad start to the year.