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.
IMAGICAT
I've just had a look at my screen grabs from earlier and this is one of Mistle's head, hopefully we will get a clearer one as the season continues but one for ID purposes.
Fergus C said:Hey guys, anything that we see that is not on the screen we are reporting. We have been concerned about the lack of feeding going on. It is quite difficult for ospreys to pass fish while perching, so this is almost always done on the nest. The male, if present, has found a perch out of view of the centre making it more difficult for us to know if he is just bad sharing!
Sorry Fergus I am confused. Which post of mine are you referring to? I was saying that none of the 100's of observers over the 16 years that I analsyed ever recorded a male Osprey handing a fish to a female at any other place than the nest. The first year I analysed was 1959 and the last 1997. It was a random selection of another 14 years in between these that gave me my data set.
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 thought it looks male, too, Richard.
I wonder whether it was the same unseen bird that was worrying them both earlier
Birdie's DU Summaries 2018 https://www.imagicat.com/
Imagicat || Tiger's links || 2022 LG Obs
What a lot to catch up on!
Thank you for the update, Fergus - even tho it's ot meg-positive, Axel started out so well, too.
Thank you all for the day's detials (don't know how you cope with that, SHEILA) and for the happy historical snaps, CC!
And everyone!
Yes, Sheila, it rather made me misty-eyed for those days... :-* Edit to include: And scylla! :-*
I think I hear faint fish begging now and then??
This is what we used to call Odin's perch (below the nest).
Unknown said:Mating. Can't tell if it was successful but it certainly took a while.
He often takes a long time - flap/paddle/fidget, then he manages to touch base for a second before flying off.