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

Geemeff
01/03/2023 20:23

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

  • 06/07/2023 02:39
    Daily summary Wednesday 5th July 2023

    Today was all about fish and moss - lots of moss appeared on Nest One courtesy of Garry LV0, but Affric was only seen in the distance near the solar panels where Garry tried his luck, but no fish-calling heard so she's either being fed off-nest or fishing for herself. Nest Two had moss deliveries at various times during the day and also had plenty of fish deliveries, four today taking the tally to 235, although one was very small and polished off in under five minutes. Dorcha spent extended periods of time away from the nest which allowed the chick plenty of space to exercise those big wings and practise the important skill of self-feeding, not yet knowing to hold the fish in its talons so going from one fish remnant to the other to get a feed. A double rainbow was seen near Nest One with a rain shower giving a glittering background.
  • 06/07/2023 08:16
    This chick is quite the character..... just watched the video of it pecking Dad over the spikey stick episode... hilarious. Am I correct it has not been ringed as yet?
  • 06/07/2023 08:44 in reply to Freebird66
    Freebird66 said:
    This chick is quite the character..... just watched the video of it pecking Dad over the spikey stick episode... hilarious. Am I correct it has not been ringed as yet?

    Correct, not ringed yet but it's going to happen soon, within the next ten days. It hatched 31st May so it's 36 days old today, 5.1 weeks old. BTO says optimum ringing time for Ospreys is 5-6 weeks

  • 06/07/2023 11:07

    08.30.43  Breakfast arrives and is greeted noisily, Louis doesn't stay long. The nest looks quite crowded with three of them in it!

    Fish number one, headless brown trout

     

  • 06/07/2023 11:23

    Nest One 08.29 Garry arrives for the usual morning housework stint 

  • 07/07/2023 00:24 in reply to Geemeff
    Geemeff said:
    Glider said:
    I like the new view from nest one

    Nest two's going to get a new view too, quite soon, after the ringer's been which will probably be in about a week or ten days. Then we can all be on fledge-watch! 

    Here's a blast from the past - Aila's final brood doing some flight prep, in quicktime set to Holst.

    The chicks Bring Jollity doing flight prep in quick time (Classic Ospreys 2020)

    https://youtu.be/KmKrmLCYAdk

    —————————————————————————————-

    I always love watching these 3 Heart eyes thanks Geemeff.  

  • 07/07/2023 00:25

    06.28 Deep breath moment as the chick wingercises in strong wind - not nearly ready to fledge yet, at 36 days it's got close to three weeks to go yet so it's risking injury or even death if the wind catches it and takes it off.

  • 07/07/2023 00:26 in reply to Geemeff

    Geemeff said:

     Wednesday 5th July Magical double rainbow with sparkles at Nest One 19.45

    https://youtu.be/IT-cvTyR6YU

    —————————————————————————————————————-

    That really is beautiful and soothing too with the sprinkling of rain gently falling. 

  • 07/07/2023 00:27

    10.43 Little birds visit Nest Two and show off their perfectly working wings by departing in a hurry when they notice Dorcha! Such a fleeting visit I did a slo-mo zoomed clip.

  • 07/07/2023 00:30

    Nest One 14.26 Finally! A fish for Affric! Garry delivers a fish which she instantly grabs and flies off with.