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
Hello Thomas, and welcome to the Forum and we who are inflicted with ospreyitis! You will see from earlier posts this morning that Mistle was surrounded by snow on the nest. A far cry from Gambia/Senegal or even Spain/Portugal where she would have over-wintered. By the way we have adopted the informal names of Mistle and Axel for the unringed female and AX6, suggested by Forum bloggers Mike and Scylla. We of course will use any name the Team once any names have been chosen, by whatever means.
Patily asked "Does anybody remember whether Loch Garten was already a nature reserve before the ospreys arrived back in the 50s, please?".
I have tried to find out:
During WWII LG was a restricted military area for the storage of munitions and the nesting area was placed out of bounds between 1940 and 1945.
1954 the first pair of osprey nested at LG.
1958 George Waterston, the Director of RSPB, set up 24-hour surveillance. The eggs were still taken and replaced by hen's eggs
1959 With the cooperation of the Countess of Seafield, who owned the area, LG was declared a protected bird sanctuary by the Secretary of State for Scotland.
George Waterston opened the RSPB osprey visitor centre
1960-63 Roy Dennis was Warden
1975 The RSPB committed itself to purchase 1517 acres of land around Loch Garten including most of the original sanctuary area.
1988 Abernethy Forest - RSPB purchase – debated in the House of Lords
I think it is 'No'! It was private land at the time.
Edit: You might like to read this post from jsb, August 2010, and the copy of a brochure produced in 1975 by the RSPB, presumably the first of their publicity publications! jsb was a regular poster with a wealth of osprey information, who sadly no longer posts.
Birdie's DU Summaries 2018 https://www.imagicat.com/
Good morning. Checking in to find Mistle standing in the nest with snow flying in speckles all around her. As with all osprey, she stands impervious in the midst. Edited to say: SNAP, Sheila and hello! :-*
Imagicat || Tiger's links || 2022 LG Obs
It's still sleeting/snowing, but we have a lovely close up shot of Mistle now. Thanks Team!