The History of The Loch Garten Group

Clare Bailey said:

the arrival of Odin in the middle of the night!

I've been hours trying to find the video - which I was sure I'd named something memorable the last time we dug it up.

What a magic night, Limpy and CC were there and one or two others whom I can't recall, disgracefully.

Hazel b said:

I got EJ's return exactly right in 2011 but it got airbrushed from history.

But we've already celebrated it on page 2 of this very thread !!!

I only have 2 years under my belt and this was a wonderful read. The affection for these birds is so heart warming particularly for the matriarchs EJ , Lady and my beloved Maya. I was watching the Web cam live when she arrived last year and the excitement. I was jumping around the room to see her. On the nest. Seat belt definitely at the ready for another roller coaster ride with the Osprey!

Freebird66 said:

I only have 2 years under my belt and this was a wonderful read. The affection for these birds is so heart warming particularly for the matriarchs EJ , Lady and my beloved Maya. I was watching the Web cam live when she arrived last year and the excitement. I was jumping around the room to see her. On the nest. Seat belt definitely at the ready for another roller coaster ride with the Osprey!

Oh that sounds exciting. This will be my 26th season of ospreys. I bought my first osprey book in central London around 1982. There was no more ospreys until August 1999 when I was browsing a bird magazine in WH Smiths Swiss Cottage. I noted that Rutland had opened a new website for the osprey translocation and and came home and dialled it up. The internet was very expensive then at 1p a minute for a 56K connection so there were some big telephone bills. 

Roy Dennis was tracking Green J and our first big discovery was that she overwintered in Spain. 

List of dates for EJ migrations  https://www.imagicat.com/EJprofile.html

Guessing when EJ would return. Here is the  2014  contest

Hazel b said:

Guessing when EJ would return. Here is the  2014  contest

You rotter, Tiger!  I had to whizz thru every page, for old times' sake    But it was sad to see the familiar names of those no longer with us, voluntarily or not.

Interesting to see the site troubles and the cam probs and to be reminded of the loss of Photobucket when they got greedy and I was too otherwise engaged to download my albums before the cut-off date

CC was the only one of us who was on the ball when EJ the Beautiful finally touched down, and forum member "fish" was the winner.

.

CC - You need to revivify your signature in your profile.

scylla said:

CC - You need to revivify your signature in your profile.

She needs to what?

Indeed, I'm with you Clare.     There must be another way of saying  'reactivate', oh ! maybe reactivate might do?

Thought I’d join this interesting group as a long time lurker. I first heard about Loch Garten from my parents who had visited there whilst holidaying Scotland. Years later in 2009 after my OH & I had retired we holidayed in Aviemore. We visited the Osprey Centre & had excellent views of EJ on the nest with 3 chicks. We saw them directly with binoculars& via the video cam. I was hooked from then. We visited again at the end of the week & saw the male (not sure who that was), deliver a headless pike & watched the female feed the chicks. We visited again in 2012 whist staying in Inverness, saw EJ & chicks on the nest & Odin perched on the camera tree. He flew off but didn’t see him return.

I read & have followed this community for a long time & decided to sign up about 5 years ago & occasionally write something myself. You all keep us well informed plus some great videos. Really looking forward to the start of the new season with all the excitement it brings.