LOCH GARTEN UPDATES AND WEBCAM INFORMATION - 2021

16.54  LOL she has started to call, looking to the left.

She's looking expectantly....and he arrives with some straw, and mantles again!!!

Well young man, a lady needs a fish if she is to lay some eggs.

16.57 he flew off, and returned to copulate,  Yay, I think that was good.  Now go fishing.

I must go at least for a while.

Axel is gone and Mistle gives a little call Good to have sound again Thank you Loch Garten

It's started to rain, streaks of it right to left. Would that be an easterly wind. Think of the rising sun on the nest with EJ.

Edit:  a brief passing shower I think.

17.43 she is still calling 

I haven't seen a fish delivery so far but I suspect AX has started to realise that it's best to eat the head before coming back into sight.  Mistle really is a stunning bird, she has such pretty feathers that hang down from her wings.  I'm not sure I've noticed this with other females.

I adore having sound! So much more you can infer about the behaviour and whereabouts of the birds from it! Now we know that she can certainly see him - I am not sure the last time he was seen, but doubt he has had the time to go off fishing and had brought one back, so assume that she is ?politely? asking him to go and get his feet wet. No way she would be calling so much if she couldn't see him. The moment she stops calling so incessently is when you can start your clocks timing his fishing expedition.

I think he finally got the message about 5 minutes ago. She is now relatively quiet. Let's see how long you take young man. And even if you return with a 9 foot stick, she will not be amused!

patily said:

That was an interesting little snippet I had not heard before, that dear EJ had a fan club in St Kitts

Today's interesting snippet? And it ties in quite nicely with what we see now - the female waiting for a fish. Read almost any book about Osprey behaviour and if it talks about male Ospreys going fishing it will say that the male flies from the nest, goes on a fishing expedition, and then it catches a fish and then heads directly back to the nest, perches nearby and after eating the head, then delivers the fish to the female. Unfortunately the male Osprey Ollie hadn't read these books. He was caught at the fish farm in the 1990s and a radio (not satellite) tracker was fitted on him (which fell off within a year) and on 3 occasions in particular he was observed to catch a fish  - all of these occasions were in the late evening. By cross refencing these dates and times with the detailed observations kept by the volunteers at Loch Garten about the comings and goings of the pair from the nest it was shown that on these 3 occasions Ollie didn't return to the nest until the following morning - and he was 'fishless'. He ate the whole fish himself. Yet again the LG Ospreys re-wrote the books on what we thought we know about their breeding behaviour. 

She's been waiting patiently occasionally fish calling. I'm very heartened by today's activities and developments so thanks all for the reports

Unknown said:

She's been waiting patiently

She finally gave up and flew off @ 21:22.  Where's Axel?  There's always something to worry about