Osprey Chat - May/June 2019

None has certainly returned since EJ and Odin paired up in 2009.  

1996 was good year as far as returnees were concerned. 

Red TC(96) m, a chick of Olive and Ollie, returned, and intruded at LG.  Our friend, Les Carr, a regular volunteer, wrote about it last year.

Red TA(96) m, from the same brood, also returned but was found dead.  Richard Thaxton's has photos at ringing, and the blog which mentions the death was on bottom of this blog, dated 9 May 2013.

The details of the dead osprey found recently in Perthshire are as follow;

Ringed Loch Garten 5th July 1996,  a male, ringed red/white TA on right leg. One of a brood of three young that year.  Picked up dead 21st April 2013 near Loch Ordie, Perthshire.  Aged 17 years. Believed to have been dead for 3 weeks or so, thought to be due to natural causes - inclement weather.

I am intrigued to see Dan Tomes, Osprey Warden 1996, in the ringing photo.  I wonder whether he is any relative of Jess.

I find it so sad that not more have returned to LG.

'None has certainly returned since EJ and Odin paired up in 2009.' Sheila, do you know that for certain? I know some trackers stopped working but were 'bodies' ever found? I'm thinking of Oighrig, Aigan and Alba for example. Maybe they survived and flew back here nice as ninepence but have just never been spotted! (wishful thinking!)

It would be wonderful to think that some had returned and not been seen, particularly those not tracked, but ringed, or the 2010 unringed trio.  But I am pretty sure that there has been no reported sighting of any chick from LG from EJ & Odin, back in Scotland.  Aigan was a Roy Dennis chick, not from from LG. 

Two chicks almost made it back to the UK, Rothes (2009-Odin's first yeaer) and Breagha (2013).

Rothes/White PJ(09) whose signal stopped in spring 2012 around Ilha de Unhocomozinho, off the coast of Guinea Bissau.  Her/his tag had become unreliable, and no new position data has been added to GE since 3 March 2012.  She did undertake north bound migrations, but never made it back to the UK.  Instead she chose to stay in the Gironde area near a sturgeon fish farm in 2011, but wasn't seen there again in 2012.

Breagha/Blue CF4(13) m also made a northern migration at the age of two, but sadly died, possibly killed or possibly as a result of a tornado and flooding which hit the inland area of the Gironde.  Noisette, a local resident, went to great efforts, and against all the odds and with a lot of determination, found Breagha's remains.

Caledonia/Blue AA1(12) f didn't go to Africa, but spent her time in Seville.  A blog posted on 13 January 2014 stated:  I've heard from Roberto in Seville and he tells me that Caledonia was found in the cloisters of the convent of San Clemente in Seville city, close to the channel of the Guadalquivir river where she regularly used to hunt for fish. It would appear that under foggy conditions, she collided with a tension cable of the lighting rod of the convent.  However, we await the results of the post-mortem to confirm the ultimate cause of death. 

All very sad.

Thanks Sheila. I remember reading these stories at the time. Good for you for collating them - or maybe you keep an expert list tracking all the ringed birds? You could be the fount of knowledge for the research project Tiger suggested?

I just happened to notice when reading a RSPB tweet that the osprey is different from the one appearing at the top of the Community's Loch Garten Forum and LG blogs.

Twitter Image: 

.

Community/LG Blogs Image: 

I think the Twitter image is Odin but I have no idea who the osprey is that appears at the top of the RSPB LG Forum/Blogs.   Can anyone ID this osprey?

Karen it looks like Odin to me....  I think this could be one of Julie Quiries photos. 

Thanks Mary. Seeing it enlarged, I've no doubts what so ever that it is Odin. It is a stunning capture of him. No surprise LG are using it.

Any idea about the other one - I've no idea who it is!

I think that is Odin too Karen, I am sure I have that photo from the early days on my computer, but after 9 years I would be hard pushed to find it amongst the hundreds of thousands of Osprey photos I have :-)

Regarding successful nests, there was a blog by Emyr Evans from the Dyfi project, if I remember rightly, sometime in the last few years about nests in sparsely populated areas (by Ospreys, not humans) successfully fledging more chicks on average than nests in areas where there are more Osprey nests. Perhaps there is more stress for the Ospreys where there are more nests, the stress being due to more intruders from passing Ospreys and a few returnees as well as more competition for good fishing sites, etc. which might contribute to lower numbers of fledged chicks. Question: If that is true, does that carry over to increased stress for the growing chicks as well, with more irregular feedings etc., making the chicks less fit for their first migration? Might that contribute toward a lower percentage of 2 and 3-year olds successfully returning to the UK? Or not? Of course, Glesni had plenty of stress in her first few years on the Dyfi nest from her Rutland cousin, Blue 24, but now 5 of her and Monty's chicks have successfully returned, 2 of which have successfully returned more than once, Clarach and Tegid. Any thoughts?

All good thoughts Ann. I'm not sure if there's a lower percentage of 2/3 year olds returning to the UK as a whole or just parts of it eg Scotland as distinct from England and Wales. The relative difference in density/stress may well be a factor as you suggest - anyone know the number of nests, breeding pairs, juveniles 'hanging around' etc, by country/density? I have a feeling that both Lowes and Garten have been more subject to intruders in recent years (and with disastrous consequences at Garten), than the English/Welsh nests but I maybe wrong.