LOCH ARKAIG - AUGUST 2020 TO MARCH 2021. Highlights are Mary GK's and Geemeff's wonderful videos of the 2020 season

August is the month when we've seen the Loch Arkaig ospreys depart on their journey south. We've enjoyed watching them this year - the wonderful parenting skills of Aila and Louis, and the antics of their 3 chicks, Captain, Vera and Doddie. 

Mary GK did an absolutely wonderful video summarising the 2020 season. Thank you so much Mary! And here is Geemeff's great compilation, thank you!

2020 last dates:

Doddie JJ6 was last seen at the nest on Saturday 15th August 2020

Aila was last seen on Saturday 22nd August 2020

Captain JJ7 was last seen on Sunday 23rd August 2020

Vera JJ8 was last seen on Saturday 5 September.

An unidentified osprey was seen off camera on Sunday 6 September eating a fish. This could well have been Louis, having arrived and found no Vera around to feed.

Doddie JJ6 was videod and photographed fishing for over a fortnight at Avalon Marshes in Somerset 

Link to July 2020 thread

Link to Youtube channel

Link to Woodland Trust Loch Arkaig page/webcam feed

  • SheilaFE said:

    What a wonderful summary you have given us Geemeff, thank you so much.

    Ospreys have had much wider coverage this year with the BBC seemingly to focus on webcams, which is good news.  How could anyone not fail to fall in love with these amazing characters.  They have been under my skin for thirteen years now when there were so few cams to follow.  Now we are blessed, so much so it is almost impossible to keep up.  But I love LA because I have seen it from the bonding stage, when Lonesome Louis was seeking a female.  Aila arrived.  Such a pretty osprey.  The steep learning curve, the maturity that has brought us to 2020.  This year has been amazing when everything went the way we hope an osprey nest would, all with a wonderful backdrop of blues, greens, heathers, greys, sun, rain, mist - did we have snow this year, I expect we did.

    BBC Radio 5 had a brief item this morning, which can be heard from about 55 mins 24 sec.   It's about Doddie in Somerset.

    Thanks, Sheila! Yes, there was snow when the camera went live:

  • With the report from Liz yesterday that she hasn't seen Louis, I completed my season highlights video. May I present:

    The good, the bad and the OMG!

  • A lovely video Geemeff, it captures all the important happenings. Love the music to accompany the antics! He did have some rigmarole with those branches! A lovely scene with the two siblings following and bowing as Doddie had his fly about. A really super season, Good luck to all the family, hope they all have a good rest, safe flying, hopefully we will see or hear about the there amigos in a few years time, and a safe return to mum and dad next year.
  • Thanks, Catlady, it was an interesting season as always - they are so photogenic, it was hard deciding what to leave out. A chatter on the WT forum informs me I did 485 videos this year, good grief, I had no idea, but it was great fun wading through the old ones for the highlights video. Safe flying to all of them - Doddie was seen in Somerset again yesterday! He really needs to get going now, but it is lovely to have news of him.

    Bonus video - an invasion of songbirds on the nest this afternoon, the cleaning crew?

  • Thanks for making that beautiful and amusing video They will be missed They have been a delight
    I hadn't realised a PM had visited
    Stay safe all of you and please return
  • What a wonderful 35mins of my life, thank you Geemeff, that was great! You forget so much during the season, but this has just brought it all together. Louis & Aila have come so far, they are real comics, roll on March/April.
    Music & clips are priceless, but so precious to have the wonderful insight of these amazing birds. Fly safely our feathered friends, and are human friends, Keep safe!
  • And I too had a wonderful 35 mins and shall most certainly watch again throughout the winter. Thanks from me too Geemeff
  • many thanks Geemeff! I've added the link to your wonderful compilation to the header. Was the camera person really awake at 2.10am on 3 June to zoom in to the 3rd hatch?!?
  • Unknown said:
    many thanks Geemeff! I've added the link to your wonderful compilation to the header. Was the camera person really awake at 2.10am on 3 June to zoom in to the 3rd hatch?!?

    Thank you, patily, Cathy, Cirrus and Korky, pleased you've enjoyed it and very kind of you Korky to move it to the header.

    I was awake when the third hatch occurred, but all the zooming was done in my final edits, none of the individual clips are zoomed. Wading through all my videos, I got the highlights down to three hours initially, then whittled away until it became a more maneagable 35 minutes. Still half as long again as 2019's 23 minute highlight video, but then there were three chicks and all the media interest this year - and a Pine Marten!

  • Another visit by a Pine Marten! Very short 03.36.02 - 03.36.09