(I am starting a new thread for April because, for sad personal reasons, Korky cannot be with us until further notice so the March title cannot be edited.)
Please read Korky's comprehensive March 2024 intro.
Asha and Brodie
Last year they arrived on 04 and 14 April respectively.
The end of the 2023 season was marred by the aggressive intrusion of BlueKL5 "Klive" (thank you, Fergus). We have no idea if the 2 youngsters were fit to migrate.
We haven't heard anything from HQ but it appears that the cams are not quite ready, despite snaps being posted to Facebook 10 days ago together with a query about the lack of IR for the third year in a row - and the streaming is unsteady and unreliable. When LG issued a warning about a delay to the opening of the season, it seemed to refer only to the Visitor Centre.
The PTZ now
Quote RSPB YT Channel: When the Loch Garten Nature Centre opens on April 15th, this camera is controlled by the centre staff during work hours, so please be gracious if you find it staring at an empty tree! The birds react quicker than the staff are sometimes able.
IMAGICAT
.
I have to bump this because I did the close-down and start-up in the wrong order - one gets rusty!
Will we or won't we see him this season?
01 April
A frosty morning with a very transitory mist - no little birds seen.
A belated Happy Birthday, Scylla. Just adding to everyone’s best wishes from yesterday. Hopefully you did manage some treats for yourself. Thank you for all you do. It’s very much appreciated. that an Osprey will arrive soon to this nest.
Thank you, BlueSky2 - on that happy note, I'm packing up - SYAL x
Someone had their eyes on the scene!
I've used the insert box to upload this and set the size boxes in it to the actual size of the snap, which is 700x333 - but I expect the system to spread it as big as will fit :(((
It' doesn't seem to work unless you leave the size boxes at their tiny default.
The nest cam went down in the evening, I had hundreds of failed files to delete.
02 April
Definite Stonestart on the tip of the campost - it returned several times during the middle of the day:
GSW:
Much-missed Trevor would have been unfulfilled, as the cam stayed on distant view all day - maybe the staff were on holiday?
03 April
scylla said:Definite Stonestart on the tip of the campost
Uh-oh
Make that a Chaffie, thanks to kind camperson zooming in for us. I would have done a vid for the sound but am not downloading the Nest cam because it's so flakey. (in any case, on checking the Nest cam now, there's no sound.)
Camperson did a period of pans and zooms, I couldn't find any critters therein.
It poured with rain all night and probably is still pouring at 04 April daycam, if only it would show up.
Hi Everyone. It has been a while since I was last here and I am very rusty at working my way around these parts. I am not sure if I am posting in the correct spot so please feel free to move my entry to a better place if need be.
I am remiss at uploading this file but better late than never. Hopefully the upload works out ok.
Loch Garten - 2023 Fish Log
Loch Garten - 2023 - Fish log.xlsx
Canuck
05 April
My internet was down from 14:30 to 17:00.
The night was dry, then wet, then somewhat snowy, but it soon cleared back to rain - which was quite cruel at times, showing us Osprey wings
Otherwise, a very quiet day on both cams, with the Chaffie seen briefly and the PTZ left with its fave perching place cropped off, just to torment us.
Very interesting! It’s a shame that it appears that the forward hide is not apparently manned 24:7 as it provided even more detailed data e.g. fish species, direction taken when going and returning from foraging. A statistician’s dream.
I haven’t seen people predicting much the date and time of first arrival, but my guess would be tomorrow at 11.35 with a fish.