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.
It was a nice chunk ! Loved the visiting Jay (Grinning smiley looks same as Anguished smiley to me )
Yep , I blinked , sigh. But, did a second viewing and saw the awkward stick go. Many thanks Scylla
07 May
Dylan popped to the high perch @ 04:47 but couldn't stay as Seren was urging him to go fishing. he obliged:
A little birdie snuck in at the side of the nest:
Dylan brought a stick and took over:
IMAGICAT
07 May cont'd
I put my own timeline on yesterday because I mostly can't read the built-in one - and I've not long noticed that it's been 2 minutes slow all day. Manually synced now, it hadn't done it automatically since March! That's the laptop that was a rip-off by an eBay business seller and had to spend £££ to put it right... ish!
PLUS - all the times I've put on the cropped snaps have been adjusted 2 minutes the wrong way !!!
Fish tail:
Dylan flew in with 2 chirps, stayed watchful for 2 minutes and flew off with 2 chips:
No whoppers yet today!
Intruder glimpsed this time:
Another fish "piece" !!!
Then this!
Missing 20:00-21:00.
Seren had a short flyabout and rest on the high perch @ 00:45.
08 May
Seren took a comfort break 04:36.
Clywedog recorder crashed and I didn't notice until I went to access the files - because I've also been crashing and burning on "this" laptop. So it's all a write-off until about 09:45 this morning.
Seren and Dylan are fine, that's all that matters:
Unknown said:13.48 nice headless brown trout delivered by Dylan. Wet morning but dry and bright now.
Seren returned at 15:26 with a trailing clump, no leftover fish for Dylan.
Dylan brought a stick:
This was me trying to find significant events in rollback when I lost the live stream. I do try but it's mostly a waste of effort, due to lack of dexterity!
I realise now that, on top of the regular cut-offs @ 08:00 and 20:00, I cannot stop that laptop from automatically installing Windows Updates, involving rebooting, of course, when I'm not looking. Many, many hours lost that time.
10 May
05:03 Dylan took over.
Yuk:
06:38 Seren returned, and a bit later she got sunshined upon!... But it didn't last.
Last event pre the 08:00 switchover - Dylan left Seren to sort it out:
I missed the fish by 3 minutes - tthank you VALERIE on YT Chat - best I can do from rollback without spending "hours". Very nice whole trout?