Llyn Clywedog March - May 2023

Llyn Clywedog is a reservoir situated near the B4518 road north of Llanidloes, Powys, Mid Wales. The reservoir is owned and operated by Severn Trent Water, with oversight and regulation by Natural Resources Wales. A sailing club and a very active trout fishery operate on the reservoir. The fishery stock the lake with tens of thousands of trout every year. 

In 2005 Natural Resources Wales erected an osprey platform; this was eventually occupied in 2014, and has been used every season since then.

In 2022 the unringed osprey known as Dylan returned to the nest for his seventh season as the resident male. Since 2020 the resident female has been Blue 5F(12) (known as Seren - Welsh for Star). She hatched in Rutland in 2012. Previously she had for several years been unsuccessful in attracting the sole attention of a male to a nest at Pont Croesor. The previous unringed female (Delyth) did not return in 2020, and Seren 5F replaced her.  In 2020 Dylan and 5F Seren fledged 3 male young, in 2021 (a cold and wet season) only one male fledged, and in 2022 one female and 2 males. 5F Seren has regularly been seen in Africa in winter for many years - she was last reported as seen in the Gambia on 1 February 2023.

In 2022 5F Seren returned to the nest on 26 March; Dylan arrived on 5 April, which is later than he arrived in previous years.

There is no visitor centre or facilities. The nest can be observed from a temporary hide in a layby off the minor road. There is a footpath close to the nest which is closed and blocked off during the nesting season.

The nest is looked after by the area NRW ranger John Williams; he has a blog on this link. There is a more comprehensive history of the site in his blog. John goes well beyond the call of duty to support the ospreys and ensure that the cameras are running etc.

There is an active Facebook group for the nest on this link. The group tries to record all fish deliveries which are collated for analysis. 

There are 2 streaming cameras provided by Carnyx Wild. The  links for the live stream change every 12 hours, the latest can be seen on the playlist links below.

Camera 1 is a close-up of the nest. - playlist on this link

Camera 2 gives a wider view with two perches - playlist on this link This camera is not being transmitted at the moment due to condensation obscuring the view.

  • Comment on Youtube chat - he Clywedog Fishery have put 12,700 fish into the reservoir so far this year. Dylan knows when he is on a good thing!
  • The intruder was a two-year-old female from Poole Harbour, Blue 372.
  • Unknown said:
    Scylla the intruder landed on the nest level perch briefly at 11.30 but a lot of buffering - always an issue when the weather is wet, for reasons I think I knew about 40 years ago!

    I've started with the initial intruder response, it being a nice dramatic touch with no buffering Stuck out tongue winking eye

    Seren's afternoon tea - if forced I'd've ID'd it as trout but you know my skills :(((

    See Dylan's crop - that was a big headed fish AstonishedGrin

    She brought back a small third, I'd say, but no good view so here were her wonderful wings:

  • 10-15-20 minutes ago Dylan brought a nice big FISH - I tapped about 10 instant live snaps of it but then lost the network connection to the laptop so I can't access any of them. I shall have to reboot everything... but not now !!!

    Tired faceTired faceTired face

    It's taken me all this time to get a snap offa YT rollback:

  • 12.18 today KA5 Roli intruded again much to 5F Seren's annoyance.
  • Bank Holiday on 1st of the month gives me the chance to total up the fish deliveries at Clywedog in March/April. Very similar to last year in number and mix (more perch than anything else). Only difference is that Dylan has caught 5 mullet over the month - we didn't see any mullet until June in 2022.
  • 15.55-15.59 KS7, a 2018 male from this nest intruded. Son of Delyth and Dylan; from memory he was first seen back as a 3 year old but not in 2020 when he was 2. Good to see he is still about. The Clywedog followers are all keen to see Delyth's line continue; this lad, his clutch mate KS8 (f) and two from 2019 (KA6 (f) and KA7 (m)) have all been seen in the last couple of years.
  • Great news re another sighting of KA5 (Roli) and also of KS7.

    Thanks for the fish stats, AG, interesting that mullet has been caught earlier this season.
  • Thanks for all the information AG. Smiley
  • Times are approx.

    Dylan came in @ 05:30 this morning and Seren was gone for an hour and a half!  She was in no hurry to take over when she came back, standing preening for several minutes - and then she flew off again!

    Dylan wa still incubating when the cam switched off @ 08:03 but I wasn't here until about 10:00 and couldn't find the changeover on YT rollback because the lens was misted.

    Hi there, Dylan Grinning

    Unknown said:
    12.18 today KA5 Roli intruded again much to 5F Seren's annoyance.

    A repeat in the afternoon - but I've no idea who it was.

    EDIT - As per AG's info, this was KS7(2018) - Delyth's son:

    I know I've missed all today's fish except the one Dylan landed and took off with when KA5 intruded - but here at last is Seren's supper:

    Seren was on the high perch before descending to take over, and she left some of her fish up there:

    The stream's been buffering badly since 23:17.