LOCH ARKAIG - THE WOODLAND TRUST - March 2023 to February 2024

Loch Arkaig Ospreys season 7

Will Louis and Dorcha return to Nest 2?

Will someone take up residence in Nest 1?

Will any of Aila & Louis' chicks be seen (Doddie JJ6 is a good bet!)

Link to 2022 thread (season 6)

community.rspb.org.uk/.../1394415

2023 season highlights:

Louis returned on Sunday 2nd April at 12.26.54

Dorcha returned on Sunday 9th April 08.09.46

They reunited on Monday 10th April at 12.33.03

First egg laid Friday 21st April at 05.44.19

A Golden Eagle touched down on Saturday 22nd April at 11.50.56

Second egg laid Monday 24th April at 07.03.30 

Third egg laid on Thursday 27th April at 07.35.39

Violent Owl strike sends an egg overboard 23rd May at 00.26.46

First chick hatches - and it's Egg3! 31st May at 13.08

Another Owl strike - Bob's unharmed. 6th June at 00.18.16 

It's a boy! The chick is ringed LY7 on 9th July around 10am

Fledge! LY7 finds his wings and flies 19th July at 15.05.11

Hello Ludo! The voting results are in and LY7 is named Ludo! 19th July

Dorcha leaves on her travels - last seen on 17th August at 06.30.34

Louis was last seen on 24th August at 15.50.34

Ludo LY7 was last seen* on 25th August at 10.03.28  (*on the nest)

Ludo sighted in France 24th September! Still there 8th October

We wish all of them fair winds and fine fishing, and hope to see the adults safely back in 2024!

Brief history of the nests:

2016 Woodland Trust acquire the Loch Arkaig ancient rainforest remnant and manage it in partnership with Arkaig Community Forest.
2017 A nest cam is installed on a refurbished Osprey nest. A young male Louis and a young female Aila take up residence and raise one male chick to fledging: Lachlan JH4.
2018 Louis & Aila return but a Pine Marten steals all their eggs.
2019 Louis & Aila return and raise two female chicks to fledging: Mallie JJ0 and Rannoch JJ2.
2020 Louis & Aila return and raise two male and one female chicks to fledging: Doddie JJ6; Vera JJ8 and Captain JJ7.
2021 Louis returns but sadly Aila doesn't. Louis takes up residence on a new nest with a new mate Dorcha and they raise two male chicks to fledging: Aspen LW3 and Alder LW4. This is designated Nest 2, no one takes up residence on Nest 1.
2022 Woodland Trust install a nest cam on Nest 2. Louis & Dorcha return and raise two female chicks to fledging: Willow LW5 and Sarafina LW6. Still no residents on Nest 1.
2022 season: Louis and Dorcha returned to Nest Two on 12th April, laid three eggs 24 and 27th April and 1st May.
The first chick hatched on 31st May, the second on Jubilee Day 2nd June and the third on 5th June but sadly passed away on 12th June.
The other two progressed rapidly and were ringed LW5 (eldest ) and LW6 (younger) on 12th July, and both gender assessed as female.
Willow (LW5) fledged 25th July and Sarafina (LW6) 31st July.
Last seen on the nest: Dorcha 18th August, Willow 28th August, Louis 8th September and Sarafina 9th September.

Link to Woodland Trust Osprey page: keeps coming up as blocked! Weird! copy and paste then join up:

https://    www    woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/osprey-cam/  

community.rspb.org.uk/.../loch-arkaig---the-woodland-trust---march-2022-to-end-of-february-2023

Dorcha bringing her one and only fish on 18th August 2022 before departing and not being seen again


Louis incubating the eggs while Aila is seen flying with a fish in the misty distance on 9th May 2020.

All captures in whatever format are copyright Woodland Trust - with many thanks for allowing captures from their nest cam livestreams

  • Glider said:
    Oh and thanks Geemeff for all the history info on chicks born in Arkaig. Do you know what the two from 2017 died of, they were both over 3 weeks old?

    The two 2017 chicks were just hatched - C2 was 3 days old, and C3 died on hatch day, shortly after emerging. I got confirmation from Liz Bracken as I posted I wasn't 100% of my dates for 2017.

    It was a blessing as newbies Aila & Louis only paid attention to C1, Lachlan-to-be.

  • Louis turns up again today on Nest One, this time with a stick! Arrives 20.31.18, does some nestorising, departs 20.32.50

  • 20.31.56 A close up look at the eggs - is that a pip? or just wishful thinking?!

     (zoom)

  • 3am look on night cam - no visible signs 

  • 04.51.36 - 04.51.41 is that tiny sound under the birdsong the chick chupping in the egg? Maybe wishful thinking!

    04.49.26 Fish number one, headless trout, comes and goes - Dorcha's not interested, backed away from the fish and almost over balanced on the edge of the nest. Very odd behavour from that of the fast morning transfers we have seen recently. She busied herself with stick moving, Louis was on the nest for almost 3 minutes before eparting with the fish.

    Mind you, she did have three fish yesterday. So is she still full, or is the egg calling to her?

  • Steve 'Statto' Quinn is the expert fish number cruncher for Woodland Trust. Here's his latest report - note the fish I just posted above beats the season's early record.

    Steve Quinn
    Fish Counter
    27 minutes ago

    Sunday (28/5/23) brought week 7 since Louis and Dorcha were first seen together to a close.

    Louis brought 14 fish to the nest in week 7, (all brown trout), compared with 19 fish in 2022 and 11 in 2020.

    2023 fish count is now c9% behind both 2022 and 2020.

    Previous fish counting years has brought our first flat fish on 6/5 and 29/6 (quite a gap), hopefully we will see one soon.

    c25% of the 113 fish brought to the nest this year (to week 7) have been whole. The remainder headless or less.

    A few more stats:

    Most popular delivery hour with 11 fish is both 5am to 5:59am and 6am to 6:59am.

    Earliest fish delivered - 04:51:01 - 10/05/2023 (this record broken today so will appear in next weeks report)

    Latest fish delivered - 21:44:28 - 25/05/2023 (a new record for week 7)

    Most fish deliveries in a day by Louis - 3 - Multiple days

    Most fish deliveries in a day by Dorcha - 1 - 10/04/2023

    Most fish deliveries in a day by Louis and Dorcha - 2 - 10/04/2023

    Fewest fish deliveries in a day - 1 - Multiple days

    Most fish deliveries in a week - 19 - Week 1

    Fewest fish deliveries in a week - 11 - Week 3

    Longest time between same day fish deliveries - 15h 23m 26s on 8/5/23

    Shortest time between same day fish deliveries - 1h 1m 54s on 11/4/23

  • Happy birthday Doddie (yesterday 29th)

     

  • Arkaig Ospreys on BBC Radio 3: Essential Classics with Tom McKinney this morning. Someone, obviously a follower, responded to his request for eagle music, suggesting  Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks from Pictures at an Exhibition by Mussorgsky. That wasn't played, but he did play that lovely piece of music called Soar, about Clarach the Welsh Osprey, by Seckou Keita and Catrin Finch on kora and harp respectively.

    www.theguardian.com/.../catrin-finch-seckou-keita-soar-review-senegal-wales

    Lovely to have our Ospreys on Radio 3. I tried to get them on Radio 4, last year I sent in a clip of the egg chupping before it hatched for Broadcasting House's slow radio spot, but Paddy went with something else instead. If I can get a good audio clip this yer, I'lll try again - it's a magical sound if you can get past the mic hiss.

  • Nest One looking magnificent at sunrise.