It may be too early to start this thread, and I find it very raw to talk about her, like many more do too, but someone said to me a few weeks ago "I don't think we are going to see EJ again. Please do a fitting tribute to her" .
SO:-
REMEMBERING EJ
I think I can safely say there are many many hearts breaking at the non return of our beautiful EJ. We will never know what happened to her but my heart thinks because of her last two disastrous seasons she has decided to stay in her wintering grounds (experts say no, but do get it wrong sometimes) although my head does tells me differently.
EJ had a harder than most "osprey life", her most settled and companionable years were probably with dear Odin.
She was the most dedicated of mothers, I think she proved that wholeheartedly when covered in snow she would not leave her eggs, then again when only self preservation made her leave the nest during her last two seasons after being almost starved to death. These are the sadder things that we do not really want to remember but they are the things that made EJ an Osprey above ALL OTHERS and the things that made her earn the respect of all Osprey followers.
It has broken my heart to do this video, but she so needs to be remembered.
Please add your own memories of her, when you saw her for the first time, and all that she has meant to you over the years.
I do hope that the nest is occupied soon and that LG continues with many successful seasons, for me personally Loch Garten is EJ, there never will be another like her, she was simply "the best".....
Her memory lives on. Bumping this thread up from page 39 to the top with a picture if EJ I commissioned from an artist in Toronto. STUNNING!
I see that Penny says it's a preliminary sketch for a pastel you've commissioned, CRINGER. It's hard to imagine it being bettered
This is the original from Facebook:
I wonder if the high res will post if some is cropped off?
This is the new high res, but of course it's had to be reduced hugely, which means compression, so I don't know that it will be any "better". Also, I can't repeat exactly what I did with original settings.