LOCH ARKAIG (c)The Woodland Trust - 04 April 2019...

The arrival of our couple, virtually together, was first snapped @ 19:12

©SANDRA !!!

©RICHARD G B


©SHEENA

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Yikes !!!  I thought I must have missed it but it's all there waiting for attention :)))

Thank you, everyone, for the super captures and info :)

I can't believe they arrived together - but they did! ;-D

Three matings altogether, only the first successful, IMHO.  They were on the nest nearly 13 minutes, this is cut down to 5 but no significant activity missing - you know how they like to stand and (males) mantle and (females) look a bit nonplussed ;)

 

UNCUT VERSION:

The first was the best ;)

He sat here for ages after his second nestcupping:

.

  • As far as I can see it was a late start this morning, when Louis arrived with a fish @ 06:15... and flew off with it again.  Aila eventually got it but she flew back with plenty remaining and Louis took it, and when he returned with it he ate it right in front of her.  As per title "Cad!"

    I do have lingering concerns about Aila not feeling secure or well fed enough for a normal breeding timetable.

    That's 9 minutes long but it covers a long time.  I'm not posting any snaps because I'm not in the mood for labouring thru the process, my snaps all come out very small these days unless I resize and upload individually.

  • Well we can't complain about not seeing enough of them today, however I only found the one fish and Louis ate most of that >:(  Aila was silly to bring it back!

    They had both arrived @ 06:15:

    Aila was not responsive so some mating attempts but she was to more than one:

    No response despite a lot of paddling and other encouragement:

    Louis had several goes at the sticky-up stick:

    Aila did some pottering now 'n then - here she had picked up the stick which had been on the left and from this point she carted it all the way around the nest and plonked it back here again:

    Earlier she had twice brought small footfuls of soil:

    Louis brought in a daft stick - he left it with the spindly twig end resting on Aila's head, it ended up almost out over the back fence:

    After a failure there was (just!) a successful mating @ 15:54:

    Louis flew off straight away and Aila waited a while, had a shout, and flew @ 16:04.  That's the last I've found today.

  • Aila just landed - some calling, does she expect a fish?

  • OMG   seems with have another George  on our hands. Precious Aila deserves a LOT better. Shame on  you  Louis.

    Thank you for all your effort here Scylla

  • Aila arrived  20.40 , pretty late,  interesting .... has she been on nest at this time before?

    Shock , Louis arrived with a fish, 20.45ish,  (I had to rewind for this),   and OMG hand over was perfect. 

    Aila flew off to enjoy  btw lol,  I remembered to slow speed but alas rather blurryGrimacing

  • I am pretty sure, but really ought to check my notes, that we have seen Louis' behaviour from the time they got together in 2017. Louis was good at bringing in large sticks, but was really slow at handing over his fish to Aila, even when she had chicks. I hope that tonight's delivery was a real turning point. They do seem well suited, but have just taken a while to settle.

    Birdie's DU Summaries 2018   https://www.imagicat.com/

  • SHEILA - absolutely, Louis has always been teasing with fish, poor Aila.  She's not getting enough to eat and the other day went fishing for herself.

    I don't think the easy late handover signifies a new resolution from Louis, as it was only after he'd been holding onto it for 3 hours (as Aila came to the nest @ 17:40-something when she saw him with fish, I feel sure).

    Hoping to be very wrong !!!

  • Is Louis a brother to George? Neither seem to know/knew that now they're supposed to be now fishing regularly for their female and delivering it without incident
    Gosh! Aila stood motionless for so long I thought the camera had frozen
    So sorry can't find what happened on scroll back Perhaps somebody more dextrous can
    Unbelievable what just happened.....Aila standing on the nest.....Louis flies in with a good sized, whole fish....for a split second I thought "oh lovely!" but he lands on Aila......presumably frightens her and she flies off the nest to the R........and Louis is gone with the fish Poor Aila! I thought she was going to get a good breakfast
  • Aila did get a good 'brekkie' not much later ....when Louis came back with the fish headless, and gave it up to Aila without much bother. :)