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.
SheilaFE said:
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 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.
Don't ask me! All I know from a personal point of view is that over 25 years ago I gave up the notion of bringing things home that I thought would 'spruce up' the happy abode. Only to find that within minutes they had been moved, oftren to another room. I think by about 1995 the old male 'Ollie' had mastered this. He used to fly in with a stick and dump it in the middle of the nest and refuse to put it anywhere in the knowledge that Olive would move it to where she wanted it.
scylla said:They "warned" us last season that they'd be changing from an Osprey Centre to a Wildlife Centre - they obviousy meant it
Bother is that if we start getting eggs LG is going to be getting loads of visitors whose overwhelming interest is that giant nest and the magnificent birds on it. I hope they are braced.
SheilaFE said:Do they understand they are sitting on THE iconic osprey nest in the UK with all the written and recorded history in the daily log books. Perhaps one day someone will be brave enough to take on a project, and write a full history as Tim did for his PhD at Rutland.
sorry - THIS has already been done.
SheilaFE said:22 April two osps on the nest
Sheila, 25mac posted this link to a video on the LG Facebook page
Ailie confirmed male with fish on 24 April at 18.45. A blue ring was seen.
At 20.15, on 24 April Sandra posted a fab photo of the male with a fish.
scylla posted a nice video just after that - he didn't give up the fish (unless that happened off the nest)
Early on 25 April, Ailie noticed he'd landed with a fish and MaryGK noticed he'd given it up!
And shortly after, patily noticed he'd tried to mate but it didn't look successful.
After that, fish, mating......who knows when the latter was first successful! Time will tell.......