LOCH GARTEN - FEEDBACK ON YOUR MUG ORDERS WOULD BE APPRECIATED!

Sandra P said:

BTW,  Happy Birthday, CRinger! 

Thank you Sandra! Shame I will have to wait until I am 66 to win next year's prize!

Thanks for all your best wishes. So sad I will have to part with the mugs!

However, I can tell you that 'version 2' of the mug has been fixed by the supplier at £6.99 each mug. Those who are interested - send me a PM.

Hopefully, at least one Osprey will land on the nest next year on your special day!  

Don't order without me, please 

Belated happy birthday wishes, CRinger, and commiserations that you did not win your mugs back! Compared to many Ospreyholics, you are still a spring chicken. I will PM you with my mug order soon, once I have judged how much shelf space I have left--LoL!

Distraught at the thought of not winning the sweepstake and having to say good-bye to 'my' mugs, this morning at dawn (I was watching but in my sadness not posting) I was thinking of all those memorable days I witnessed at LG. I have often been asked which is the MOST memorable. A difficult choice....... but this morning I decided. 6th April 2003. What happened?

A glutton for punishment this Osprey Warden also volunteered 2 mornings a week at 'Caper Watch'. The doors of the centre were opened at 5 am and between 5 and 8 all were invited to come to the centre for the possibility of viewing Capercaillie 'live'  from the centre - in those days there was a lek (caper display site) very close to the Osprey nest. The capper numbers were low, but we frequently saw birds and despite the early hour we often had 50+ visitors try their luck to see what was then an endangered species in Scotland. Daybreak is the best time to see the birds and 5 turned into 6 with 0 birds seen. Many of the early visitors left. 6 turned into 7 and still no sightings. There was myself and a colleague in the centre with about 15 visitors when suddenly a male capper appeared not 100 metres from us and started displaying. Amazing views. Within a few seconds a rival appeared and we had 2 male cappers strutting up and down, gurgling and displaying as though their lives depended on it. Never seen this before or since. Couldn't be beaten.

Or could it? The female capper is rarely seen. From the books she has an orange neck with a chest mainly buff mottled with brown stripes and wings mainly brown mottled with white stripes. I had never seen one before. Until that morning. On the microphone on the Osprey's nest we heard a beating of wings and a female capper landed in the Osprey nest! None of the books did that plumage justice. Her breast was indeed orange, but so vibrant. But it was her wings that enchanted me. The intricate white stripes on the wings looked like it had been designed and made by an expert lace-maker. Totally jaw dropping. She had landed in the nest so she could have a 'capper's eye' view of the 2 displaying males. Her job - to choose the 'king of the rock'. An unbelievable site! The birdwatchers were torn between watching the males displaying and the gorgeous female. More noises on the Osprey mic. A SECOND female joined the first in the middle of the nest. Then you could have 'knocked me down with a feather'. After about 20 minutes as suddenly as they arrived they left. No cappers to be seen, but those present will always remember that day. Shortly afterwards, time to close up the visitor centre - 8 am. Usually I would return to the chalets but I felt drained. I needed to record my feelings and put them in the Osprey warden's diary for the web. So I started to write.

The first thing that came to mind, and I have no idea why, was Shakespeare's Henry V soliloquy before the Battle of Agincourt. I started to write, paraphrasing as necessary and was pretty pleased with the result. What an amazing morning! Alone by myself now, trying to relive what had happened and trying to put into words all the emotions that I had experienced with my views of the cappers. I was doing a final edit around 9.15 when another fluttering of wings on the microphone made me realise I was no longer alone. My first sighting of an Osprey of 2003 took my elation to new heights. Just me and our resident female Olive. All on 6th April. I shed many tears.

The diary entry that day was along the lines of:

This day is called the feast of Marcellinus. He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named, And gentlemen in Scotland now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That were here with me and witnessed what we saw on Saint Marcellinus’s day.

I then used my inadequate words to try and describe what we had witnessed and also that special moment of me alone with Olive.

I see that SheilaFE's guess is the closest to 6 April. I hope her 6th April matches mine this year.

I said earlier that I have no idea why, when I started to write my diary entry, my first thoughts were of Shakespeare's Henry V. The diary was published on the internet on 8th April. On 11th April a male Osprey landed on the nest. Ringed Ochre HV. After he delivered fish to Olive one of my assistants said we needed to give him a name. I said his name had been decided many days before we first set eyes on him. He had to be Henry (the fifth). I wept again.

Fact is stranger than fiction. 

Ahhhh, what a lovely story, CRinger--thanks. I have been thinking, and if I win the competition, I will split the difference with you--you keep one mug and I will have one--fair enough?

Edit:  That is in addition to my order.

Unknown said:

Ahhhh, what a lovely story, CRinger--thanks. I have been thinking, and if I win the competition, I will split the difference with you--you keep one mug and I will have one--fair enough

What a lovely gesture! We can discuss it if you win. Good luck to all!