LOCH GARTEN Daily Obs & Captures MAY 2021

On the 15th of March the 360 cam went live and an Osprey landed on the nest.  It didn't take too long for a pair to begin bonding:

Male: BlueAX6 "Axel" - Ringed at a nest in Glen Affric on 1st July 2016, he was the only survivor of 3 eggs.

Female: Unringed "Mistle" - a very beautiful specimen, according to our long view.

(Unofficial names - LG will decide on names if deemed appropriate.)

This inexperienced couple is bonding well - Axel has been a good provider, they're both enthusiastic nestbuilders, the only element that requires more work is the mating technique.

EDIT 01 JUNE - Axel & Mistle deserted the nest in May, apparently spooked by intruders.  As there has been very little activity since then, this thread will continue to the end of the 2021 season, unless dictated otherwise by ospreys.

Photo ©RSPB LochGarten

Cam info kindly provided by Peter @ Carnyx.tv:

There is an identical camera and microphone on this nest as the HD camera at Llyn Clywedog (Osprey). However the nest was struck by lightning. This took out the camera, the camera power supply and the WiFi link back to the centre. We managed to replace the power supply and Wifi but it was too late in the season to climb to the nest.

  • There's a new blog and the ospreys have been mentioned!

    YEAH!

    Our herring gulls are red listed birds.  Think about that the next time you hear some flaming idiot calling for a cull of them.

  • Thank you Clare, I dashed there in hope The forest gets a lot of love from everyone.

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  • Thank you Clare, I wonder if they want to shift the focus from the ospreys, it must have been a difficult time without any on the nest.
  • Wow..this old lady found what she was looking for ...chuffed to be here at LG once more
  • SheilaFE said:
    Dyfi has a useful table on 'egg stats':  here

    Great thanks Sheila. OK so another question.....the dates from first mating to 1st egg laying at Glaslyn vary a bit (10-16 days). Is one factor whether the pair were established or new*? (sorry I don't know the history of this nest re pairings....). 

    (* "I met my old lover on the street last night" ...name that song)......(there's always a song...)

  • Clare Bailey said:

    There's a new blog and the ospreys have been mentioned!

    YEAH!

    Great to see 1 sentence out of 7 celebrating their return!

    Some people think Ospreys are a matter of life and death. I don't like that attitude. I can assure them it is much more serious than that. 

  • JaneV said:
    I wonder if they want to shift the focus from the ospreys

    They "warned" us last season that they'd be changing from an Osprey Centre to a Wildlife Centre - they obviousy meant it Hushed 

    I'm only operating "part time" at the mo, for one reason and another.

    Here was Axel's disappointing return with a small clump after a long absence - he's going to be in my bad books if he falls short in the fish as well as the mating department!

    Talking about being part time now, lord knows what I was up to on the 22nd and following days - the 26th is the earliest I've got:


    .

    However, I saw a successful mating several minutes ago.

    .

  • Another successful mating a couple of minutes ago - but only just made contact for a second !!!
  • scylla said:

    Talking about being part time now, lord knows what I was up to on the 22nd and following days - the 26th is the earliest I've got:


    .

    .

    Mission Control NEVER lets us down! Now we can really see how busy this pair has been! I bow, once again, to Scylla.

    Some people think Ospreys are a matter of life and death. I don't like that attitude. I can assure them it is much more serious than that. 

  • I was wondering where the bright light brown nest material came from now lying at the back of the nest, just below the rim.  

    Mistle found it at four o'clock (direction wise, not time!) below the rim.  She pulled it out, put it on the top of the rim, but didn't like it.  She moved it around before dropping it on the far side.  A nice piece of decorative furnishings.

    15.09 she began moving sticks and moss, lichen etc and brought this piece of bark up from the side of the nest

    and put is down on the rim

    But she wasn't happy with it here, and lifted it up again

    I'll try the back of the nest instead

    That's OK, job done!

    We were treated to a zoom - what did she spot

    She remained standing in the cup, and the mizzle started to fall.

    17.17 Axel landed and they stood back to back before he lifted up and down on her back.  Whether it was successful or not I can't say

    Axel flew off immediately after.

    17.21 she spread her wings and lifted in the wind before flying towards us down to the left.

    17,46 Axel landed slowly, wings open

    Followed on hot pursuit by Mistle who started calling, 'fish, now'.   Axel responded by a successful mating!  and he flew off 17.48.

    Up to date

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