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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scylla said:. Seren has set the bar pretty high in the "dreadful sticks" competition - this is a bookmark to her latest effort to outdo herself.
Seren has set the bar pretty high in the "dreadful sticks" competition - this is a bookmark to her latest effort to outdo herself.
Somewhat delayed - mostly FF to save your time and patience
IMAGICAT
Haha, that was certainly the stick of all sticks!
Looks like defences against incoming intruders
2013 photos & vids here
eff37 on Flickr
03 July
Super supper this evening!
06 July
Breakfish on this wet morning:
The chicks on nest 2 were ringed late last week.
A male (8B6) weighed 1410g and the female (8B7) 1680g
Thanks AG, that’s good to know. So the 2 at Brenig have carried on this ring number sequence.
08 July
Getting slightly off the "ground":
09 July
Super fish this morning, chicks not mad for it, Seren had trouble getting to it. Another wet-wet-wet morning!
Some highish wingercising and something that may qualify as a helicopter in here - despte the awful weather!
Selfless, hollow-cropped Dylan brought a wonderful fish:
Seren and her 3 stooges
I got interrupted by the arrival of my new telly, so I lost about 3 hours as well as my mind - you know me and smart gadgets
This was Seren's flight being followed by the chicks - I'm trying a separate post, as it wouldn't show in the previous (like last time, when Wendy said she could see it but I couldn't not no-how!):
EDIT - and it won't this time either, hence it's a link in the above sentence.