Link to July 2023 - here
RECAP
FLORA HK0 arrived 30 March 2023
HARRY (unringed) arrived 4 April 2023
EGG No.1 laid 15 April - Hatched 21 May (37 days) Fledged 9 July aged 49 days
EGG No. 2 laid 18 April - Hatched 23 May (36 days) Fledged 14 July aged 52 days
EGG No. 3 laid 21 April - Hatched 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
IMAGICAT
Definitely no-one up to 13:30, but then my downloader stopped and I wasn't conscious to restart it until just now
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.
The three juveniles 2023
(Left to right) Harry and Flora at the beginning of the season.
2013 photos & vids here
eff37 on Flickr
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