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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I've been missing you this season, AG
I have all the footage 24/7 (with caveats) going back to the 11th of August !!!
Caveats
(1) I cannot cope with being on duty at the changeover times - sometimes I'll start an evening session from rollback and then stop and resume during darkness, so that the recording is on-time at daycam time.
(2) My internal network has been flaky for the past ? years, following a particular Windows Update. It means I can't access the recording files.
(3) I'm even less fit & on-the-ball than I was last year, thank goodness our dear birds couldn't care less.
Suffice to say, I'm very depressed about the poor coverage provided to this thread this season. I'm still hoping to do some kind of farewell video.
IMAGICAT
Scylla my plan was to pretty much retire, volunteer at Brenig (which is an hour from home) and do other things this summer. What was my last work project has been delayed, and involved a LOT more bueaucracy than we expected, and I'm glad to say I will not be repeated, by me at least. I'm sorry to hear of your challenges, both health an IT; best wishes.
So very sorry to read of all your ills dear Scylla, both Tech and physical. You know how much I wish you well and healthy with excellent electronics, sigh. If I was in the position to do so I'd revamp all your Tech for you. Mmmm , if wishes were horses ...........................
Delighted to say there are images on the Clywedog FB page of 5F Seren back on her favourite winter perch near Tujering in the Gambia. Thanks to Fansu Bojang.
Oh AG that's wonderful news. Thank you so much for posting that
I'm sorry to have to report that the tree which contained Clywedog nest 2 did not survive Storm Darragh. It is not feasible to replace it, or to erect a platform as it was on private land and near a footpath, so permission is unlikely to be forthcoming. It was a natural nest, and hopefully the adults will find a better tree elsewhere and build a new nest.
Hopefully so AG . Once again thank you. I appreciate the heads up.