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:
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
Nest One 14.10 One member of the threesome visits, no one else comes when Garry pays a second visit
14.14 Ludo flies with fish for the first time - accidentally!
Something startles him and he goes flying off the nest, taking the fish with him
16.29 This time it was intentional, and Ludo achieves another milestone - he flies with fish, looking very confident as he acquires this essential skill.
Thursday 27th July
Blast from the past: On this day in 2019, Rannoch made her maiden flight
Rannoch (JJ2) is the third chick of Aila & Louis, after Lachlan (JH4 2017) and Mallie (JJ0 2019)
Ludo arrives squeaking, lands on the high perch 06.44
Fish number one, whole trout 07.01.29
Nest One gets a flock of little visitors 07.26
11.39.05 Louis delivers fish number two, a whole trout.
Dorcha arrives seconds later and grabs it from him. She goes immediately, with the fish in a beak-hold.
He remains and does a bit of nest cupping and tidying before departing.
12.53 Several juvenile Hooded Crows invade the empty nest, and bumble around investigating thoroughly, foraging for edible scraps. They remain for nearly an hour, very entertaining so I speeded it up and set it to Rimsky-Korsakov, part of my Classic Ospreys series
https://youtu.be/z1_voshU-z8