Alyth is located in Perth and Kinross on the east coast of Scotland. The Osprey nest is at the Alyth SSEN Transmission sub station and is the tallest of all the nests on camera in the UK.
Background information:-
The Ospreys have nested at the site for many years since around 1990.
They were nesting on a nearby electricity tower, but due to a planned expansion of the site a decision was taken to resite the old nest to a specially constructed 25-metre nesting tower and two nearby 8.5 metre resting perches, which were erected in 2014. Advice was sought from Roy Dennis.Since that first breeding season in 2014, a total of 17 osprey chicks have been observed to have fledged from the new site.
Due to the height of the tower, no ringing can take place.
The resident ospreys are called Harry and Flora (blue HK0), named by a local school in Alyth. All pupils were also given their own osprey soft toy as a thank you from the teams for getting involved and for showing such enthusiasm about the ospreys.
In 2023 Flora HK0 arrived on 30th March and Harry on 4th April. Together, they successfully raised three chicks to fledging.
Flora was last seen on 10th August and Harry 7th September. (The camera stream was offline from 13- 23 August)
Thank you Richard for initial information which I’ve edited to include last year’s figures.
Links
August 2023 to February 2024
Live stream - SSEN Transmission as provided by Wildlife Windows
RETURN DATES 2024
Flora (Blue HK0) 28 March 19.19
Harry 29 March 14.40
EGGS LAID
15/04/24 at 11.01 ———————-Hatched 21 or 22/05/24
18/04/23 at 09.04 (I think!) ————--Hatched 23/05/24
21/04/23 sometime in the morning. ————Hatched 26/05/24
SADLY, ONE CHICK DIED ON THE NEST ON 30/05/24
LIVE STREAM WAS DOWN FOR OVER TWO WEEKS FROM MAY 31. WHEN IT RETURNED, IT WAS EVIDENT THAT THERE WAS ONLY ONE CHICK REMAINING ON THE NEST.
The CHICK FLEDGED on 26/07/24
MIGRATION
Flora and the juvenile left at some point before the end of August when the live stream was down. (12-22 August)
However, I suspect it may have been the 21st August that the last one (or both) left as Harry was seen on the nest on the 22nd with a fish.
Harry was around for a few days after, seen on the 26th August and probably it was him on the 30th as well, which would have been his last sighting.
All photos and videos copyright SSEN Transmission Alyth and Wildlife Windows
Harry (left) and Flora HK0 at the beginning of season 2023.
July 2024 - (from left) Flora, chick, Harry.
July 2024 - The chick and Flora.
Freebird66 said:Did you establish a reason for the chicks dying on this nest
Hi Freebird66 I'm probably not "you" and I can't answer definitively, but I understand that one poor chick got stepped on accidentally by Flora and died as a result - and then another chick "disappeared" during one of the outages this nest has suffered this season.
I stand to be corrected on the second loss.
IMAGICAT
Yes that is all I’ve heard too .. was up visiting yesterday again . Flora and Harry were on and off their perch ( to the right of the nest, unseen from the camera) keeping a great watch on the chick … can usually tell who is on the perch , shaped like a T , as each prefers their own side
A catch up from today
10.45 A morning feed for the chick
13.05 a small fish delivery from Harry
13.08 Flora feeding the chick
14.17 Flora pulls a piece of fish from the nest
14.31 she manages to coax the chick to eat some.
15.20 Harry arrives on the nest mantling and chipping, Flora flaps too. There is an intruder in the sky.
15.21
It didn’t come near to the nest and things quietened down.
15.35 Harry left the nest and returned to the perch. He flew down
and landed on Flora to mate
She was quite accepting, her tail was up.
The chick is quickly growing and developing. I don’t know if it’s chick #1 or #2 so it could be 46 or 45 days old.
18.15 Flora doing her best to shelter the chick during a heavy downpour.
20.03 Flora just about to leave the nest to sit on the nest cam.
21.02 Again Flora sheltering her chick during a shower of rain, much lighter than before.
©️SSEN/Alyth
I was surprised to see the birds mating this late in the season with a chick on the nest. Was it a reaction to the intruder appearing a few minutes earlier?
Does Harry think one chick isn’t enough?!
Is it just an affirmation of their bond? I don’t recall seeing this before with established couples who have chick(s).
I would add re the disappearance of the second chick during the camera outage that some people in the YT chat, suggested it may have been blown out of the nest during the high winds as Flora and Harry spent a lot of time heightening the cot rails after livestream returned. However, we will never really know what happened.
9 July
12.11 Harry arrived with a good sized headless fish. According to the chat, he dropped one earlier this morning.
12.12 Harry stayed for the duration of the feed.
12.20 The chick turned away, 372 had a piece in her beak for it which she then swallowed herself.
Harry then left, gliding away.
14.18 Flora (left), Harry and chick.
Since we don’t know which chick this is but thinking it’s #1 or #2, it must be either 47 - 49 days old. Looking at last year’s records, chick #1 fledged at 49 days old but this chick hasn’t yet been helicoptering.
July 12
All still well here at Alyth. This is one of the fish the chick has had today.
19.56
19.58
20.17 Sitting or standing Flora made sure that chick kept getting fed!
20.27
20.28 It has a very full crop but Flora can still squeeze a little more in!
She must find it strange feeding only one chick compared to the busy nest of 3 chicks last year.
14 July
06.26 The family together with Harry on the nest.
06.29 The youngster is doing a lot of wingercising.
11.49 Harry arrives with a headless fish.
11.51
©️SSEN
Super capture Glider ...
2013 photos & vids here
eff37 on Flickr
Thanks Wendy. It’s easier with only one bird on the nest!
15 July
12.12 Harry brought a whopper of a fish to the nest but Flora was nowhere to be seen.
Harry started mantling and chipping
The chick had its eyes on the fish. Harry still chipping.
12.13 Harry released his grip to let the chick take it.
12.14 The chick struggled to make any headway with eating the fish.
12.17 After Harry quietened down from chipping, he flew to the perch.
12.24 The chick had given up on the fish.
12.25 Harry came down and took it away.
12.37 Flora arrived 12 minutes later. She wouldn’t know she’d just missed a fish delivery!
13.24 She was calling for fish.
14.56 Harry returned with the now headless fish.
Flora took it and started feeding the chick straight away.
16 July
Some of today’s events.
08.07 Wingercising
He/she manages a little jump
08.28 Looking over the edge. It’s sooooo high up there.
13.00 Harry arrives with a large headless fish.
18.44 The heavens opened and the rain fell down. 18.45 Flora flew down from the perch to shelter her chick as best as she could.
The chick snuggled under
19.33 It’s starting to clear
19.34 The chick starts to stand up and pull out from under Flora.
As he/she does that, Flora flies off.