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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22 June
Big headless* breakfish this morning:
*So it really was BIG originally.
Later, he blotted his copybook, leaving Seren to sort out an unsuitable stick:
IMAGICAT
Jeepers, it looked like a giant spider arriving in the nest. Dylan , really !!!
27 June
Another rainy morning :(((
Dylan delivered a flapper and then arrived on the perch with a piece of fish that he couldn't have got from the nest - I checked with a fine-tooth comb! Maybe he had some stashed or went and caught a minnow...
Seren chased an unseen (by me) intruder and has since been fish-calling almost non-stop - this morning's breakfishes couldn't satisfy.
As I type - Seren is absent and the chicks are pancaked.
..
28 June
Blummin' great rainbow trout(?) this wet morning!
Super breakfast, well done (again) Dylan . There are not many happy nests this year but this is one of them. Thank you Scylla
29 June
An "interesting" start to the day for the chicks - Seren's bringing in sticks since they started wingercising, and her landings would fail the RAF (parachute regiment?) exams! Dylan brings a medium headless fish, the feed was blocked by Seren.
30 June
I missed several hours after the changeover this morning - but not the crucial event that foiled John & Peter's best-laid plans!
01 July
Dylan dumped sticks on the chicks and left them to sort them out - which they did! With Seren's help
(I've tried to see thru the poo... )
02 July
The eldest chick in particular has been wingercising this past few days - here he was this morning, with a younger sib having a less assured go
Seren has set the bar pretty high in the "dreadful sticks" competition - this is a bookmark to her latest effort to outdo herself.