ALYTH AUGUST 2023 to end of FEBRUARY 2024

  • Link to season’s opening post here

Link to July 2023 - here

RECAP

FLORA HK0 arrived 30 March 2023

HARRY (unringed) arrived 4 April 2023

 

EGG No.1 laid 15 AprilHatched 21 May (37 days)  Fledged 9 July aged 49 days

EGG No. 2 laid 18 AprilHatched 23 May (36 days)  Fledged 14 July aged 52 days

EGG No. 3 laid 21 AprilHatched 25 May (35 days)  Fledged 20 July aged 56 days

 

Due to the height of this nest, no ringing of the chicks takes place.

 

This has been a dramatic month with chick #1 getting a thin piece of plastic wrapped around its ankle for a few days, (Flora has a love of bringing plastic to the nest) chick #2 turning out to be quite aggressive, especially to chick #3 and chick #3 not getting much to eat on a lot of days. However, the three chicks are still here and seem to be doing okay. The fish brought to the nest can be sporadic and mostly small but each juvenile usually manages to get something to eat. #3 is getting more confident in snatching the fish as they arrive. We’ve had a couple of scares with Flora twice tumbling off the side of the nest with a juvenile but luckily no harm done. Flora wasn’t seen for 3 days (24-26 July) but is thankfully back and providing for the nest. 

#1 has been taking fish off the nest to eat since 17 July (58 days old) so I am expecting this juvenile to be the first to begin migration but who knows! It’s still a few weeks away so hopefully the fish supply will include a few big ones to fatten these young ospreys up for their long journeys ahead. 

Today, 1 August,  the juveniles are 72, 70 and 68 days old. 

The family at the beginning of the month


and now the three juveniles

Flora and Harry delivering fish




All captures and videos ©️ SSEN Transmission

  • 08 September

    No Osprey seen up to 07:22, but were these visitors Starlings?

    I'm off duty for some hours Slight smile

  • Good morning Scylla, yes a lovely family of starlings thank you. A very misty start to the day, not fully clearing until around 10.20. Still no ospreys. (Up to 10.50) I’m sure our #3 has flown south. We’ll see if Harry makes an appearance later with a fish unless he is sure #3 has gone too.
  • Definitely no-one up to 13:30, but then my downloader stopped and I wasn't conscious to restart it until just now Smirk

  • Thanks Scylla, it appears no ospreys came to the nest at all today so the whole family is on their journey now. I’ll do a wee end of season summary tomorrow.
  • Sunday 10 September 

    All the Alyth ospreys are gone and the nest lies quiet. Three chicks were born to Flora (HK0) and Harry and grew into fine young ospreys. My first year of watching this nest closely, Flora and Harry are the established residential pair.  Flora arrived first this year on 30 March, followed by Harry on 4 April. I’ll never forget how excited he was to see her on their reunion.

    They mated quickly and soon produced 3 eggs. Both birds were dutiful in the preparation of the nest and incubating their eggs. When the chicks were born, Harry brought many fish to the nest, averaging around 7-8 per day. On one “super day” in June, Harry caught 13 small fish.


    Flora was quite a personality and a great collector of man made materials and brought plastic sheeting and other items to the nest.  Some of the plastic sheeting blew off but some became embedded in the other nesting materials. At the beginning of July chick #1 got a thin band of sheeting wrapped around its ankle for a week or so, Seemingly no harm done thankfully. Fewer sizeable fish were brought to the nest by Harry and sibling rivalry grew.  #3 chick missed out on a feed some days as it’s older siblings dominated the feeds. Flora started fishing as well then took a 3 day break during the last week of July.

    Flora was away elsewhere for the first week of August too. Chick #1 was last seen on 4 August, aged 75 days. Chicks #2 and #3 had some big battles for dominance of the nest and went hurtling over the edge a few times. Flora returned on 8 August but left again on 10 August to start her migration. The online cam went down from 13 August to 23 August. When the cam came back up on 24 August, only #3 was left. So #2 presumably started migration between 82 and 92 days old. #3 remained on the nest until 7 September, a ripe old 105 days! Harry twice flew in with fish and on seeing his last offspring had gone, he too left. 


    I wish them all safe journeys and hopefully the youngsters will return in later years as breeding adults. All going well, we’ll see Flora and Harry next year. Hugging


    The three juveniles 2023

    (Left to right) Harry and Flora at the beginning of the season.

  • Many thanks Glider for all your dedication to this nest, bringing us daily progress reports, such a shame live streaming was not available for all those days and that the nest too high to climb to ring and sex the youngsters, do hope to see Harry and Flora back next year!

     

     2013 photos & vids here

    eff37 on Flickr

  • Thanks Glider for the season's summary and all your photos during the season. It's been a pleasure to read your posts.
  • Many thanks Wendy and Janni. It was a very interesting nest to follow and to get to know the characters of Flora and Harry. Hugging
    Yes, it was a shame we missed the live stream action at the end of the season before #2 left. We were lucky #3 was still around to watch for a few days. I’m so happy that he/she made it to migration as there were times I really worried about the lack of food #3 got. I hope Flora and Harry return next year. I know there was chat on the live stream about plans for battery storage in the field below the nest so things will look a whole lot different next year.
  • 19 October - Storm Babet

    Not many sticks blown off, the cam went down just before 02:00 last night:

  •       THREAD CLOSED - LINK to MARCH 2024