LINK TO LOCH ARKAIG OSPREYS WEBSITE
Return Dates for Louis last year was 5th April 08.15 and Aila 6th of April 09.24
The happy couple last year - lets hope its not too long until we see them safely return from migration.
LINK TO MARCH 2021 THREAD - where all links are to previous threads and history.
EJ's Memorial Balgavies Loch Ospreys 2023
Another great video from Liz - poor Dorcha :-)
patily said:I don't remember anything about this nest GEMEFF Which pair are they, please? and is this their first year?
Patily - after Aila didn't return, Louis hooked up with another female at another nest in the nearby area. The nest is visible from Liz Bracken's home so she periodically posts long distance clips which Geemeff kindly posts here. In an earlier post (a page or two before this post) Mary gave details of the rationale for the name Liz had thought of for the female (Dorcha). If memory serves, they have two chicks but so far I am not aware of any ringing information. Ian
Ian S said:
patily said: I don't remember anything about this nest GEMEFF Which pair are they, please? and is this their first year?
We're not sure if this female is one of the unringed females who visited the Loch Arkaig camera nest after Aila didn't return. But she and Louis have paired up on one of the two non-camera nest platforms quite close to each other, approx 2km from the camera nest. Initially it was thought there might be three chicks, but Liz has confirmed there are two, and both are visible in an earlier video posted by Liz (page 43 here). Dorcha was recently given her name, which means dark as she has dark facial markings, before that she was referred to as Mrs Louis. It's thought the first chick hatched 15th June, and the ringers will probably visit the nest when they're in the area ringing the chicks in the nests on private land nearby.
Interestingly, WT George (Mr Sylvestris) informed us that the nest chosen by Louis & Dorcha is the very one featured in the WT video about constructing a nest:
NEWS!!!! Louis' chicks have been ringed today!
From Friends of Loch Arkaig fb page: "Lewis has ringed the chicks this afternoon. He's confirmed there are two chicks, both male, around 4 - 5 weeks old. There should be photos and further details to follow at some point from George.
"The video (on fb, not yet on Liz' youtube channel) shows both Louis and Dorcha at the nest around 6pm after theringers had left. Louis brought in a fish a bit earlier. One of them has the fish on the nest while the other flies up to the dead tree on theright. I'm not sure who's who. Very windy today so clip is a bit shaky I'm afraid.
"Someone asked the other day about the nest at the far end of the loch - it also has two chicks, male and a female, ringed today
"The third nest, a natural nest that I thought YP and 152 might be using and had ospreys sitting on eggs, has failed."
From Friends of Loch Arkaig facebook: Mary Cheadle passed on a report from Tweed Valley that female FS2 who hatched in Loch Arkaig (not sure which nest) in 2014, before L&A arrived, is nesting near Peebles and produced 2 healthy chicks this year. They think that she has been the resident female at that nest since 2019, and probably also in 2018, but they hadn't been able to get her ring details (FS2) until now. Two of her chicks from 2019 turned up at Kielder last month.
Does anyone know which nest? Is it the one Pean (JH3) hatched from?
Geemeff, Excellent news, I don't know which nest she came from. The UK Ospreys page just says Loch Arkaig 2 but I'm sure that had been checked anyway. I assume Lewis Pate doesn't know. Has anybody tried Roy Dennis? I only contacted him once (a few years ago) to try to get details and didn't even get an acknowledgement. Ian
EDIT - The UK Ospreys site has Pean (JH3) from Loch Arkaig 2 as well, so maybe the same nest. United Kingdom Ospreys - Darvic Rings Blue 3 Character (ukospreys.uk)
Ian S said:Has anybody tried Roy Dennis? I only contacted him once (a few years ago) to try to get details and didn't even get an acknowledgement. Ian
I once had an email exchange with Roy about Rothiemurcus. There's a link on his website about how to report sightings of ringed osprey