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 2004 the Forestry Commission erected an osprey platform; responsibility for this was taken over by Natural Resources Wales and it was eventually occupied in 2014, and has been used every season since then.
In 2023 the unringed osprey known as Dylan returned to the the original nest (Nest 1) for his eighth 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, in 2022 one female and 2 males fledged. In 2023 2 males hatched but one (8B1) was predated by a goshawk before fledging. 5F Seren has regularly been seen in Africa in winter for many years - she was last seen in the Gambia on 8 February 2024.
In 2023 5F Seren returned to the nest on 25 March; Dylan arrived on 27 March. Both birds returned to the nest on 28 March 2024.
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.
In 2023 a natural nest (Nest 2) was found towards the southern end of the reservoir. From this nest Blue Z5, a 2020 bird from private nest in North Wales and an unringed male produced a single female chick who was ringed 7B9. Z5's father was blue Z1, a 2016 chick from the Dyfi, whose parents were Blue 12 (Glesni) and the unringed Monty. Nest 2 can be seen (with good optics) from the viewpoint at Bwlch y Gle.
The nests 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. John is planning that nest 1 will have one fixed and one PTZ camera this season - the live feeds are on a new link every 12 hours, which is accesible from https://www.youtube.com/user/CarnyxWild . Nest 2 will not have any streaming camera coverage. All images are copyright Natural Resources Wales.
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.
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23 May
No cams overnight, I may not be around to pick them up if/when they come back online.
Meant to say - I do hope #3 wastes no time hatching - 2 formidable nest-mates await
IMAGICAT
One semi-sighting underneath Seren - so far this morning. Most unsatisfactory, and I've cut the bottom a bit tight, sorry.
Quarter speed.
..
Latest sighting - definitely TWO osplets and one unhatched egg:
Still no perch cam.
Seren returning from a comfort break. I wondered if some shell was stuck to the unhatched egg but it wasn't clear enough, hope to get a better view eventually.
Dylan arrived at 8.28 a.m. with a huge rainbow but 5F did not want to feed the chicks in the rain. He took it away but appears to have dropped it as he returned in a couple of minutes empty taloned and that fish was not seen again. Compensation arrived at 12.28 in the shape of a large brown trout which from which the chicks got a good feed with a lot of leftovers.
ver.
24 May
The 2 bobs are bobbing away, no sign of pip in #3, but we still have no zoom from the perch cam to be sure.
07:01 - buffering set in for the duration.
24 March
In view of all good wishes, I'll say that today so far has been a much less painful day :))) But I'm flagging now, hence no editing of breakfish and I'm sure I saw Dylan feeding the chicks earlier but can't easily find it so here's the longer Seren effort, I haven't examined it for successes or failures, but didn't notice any bonking.
Glad that the pain is going Scylla, rest well.
At the beginning of the clip, when the first bob got up, it had a wee squirt and it landed on daddy’s foot!
c18:18 third hatch!
18:50 Still with shell on its head or within a possible discarded half? Next to 5F's left talons
©NRW/Carnyx Wild
21:00 All three chicks in view