(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
Canuck to be honest I don't know what 'delayed' incubation really is. I don't think we saw it with EJ and Odin, and I only learned of it when Dyfi was 'educating' us!
Carrying on from my earlier report:
15.21 Brodie is incubating, and calling for a break. Rain drops on the cam.
15.22 Asha appears, and she tells him to go fishing, just as Asha is blobbed out by rain. Brodie
15.28 Asha flies off to the left, Brodie gets up to watch her, then checks beneath himself before settling down.
15.41 Asha returns with bedding or bark, and stands close to Brodie, who stays down.
She starts to call gently. Go fishing dear!
15.43 Brodie leaves, Asha continues to cheep occasionally. It's windy and the sky is dark to the towards the hills in the north east.
15.44 Asha moves towards the cup and moves bits before settling.
15.45 Asha has a tidy of the nest before settling down again.
16.21 Cam searches for Brodie, in all the regular roosts, but doesn't find him. Back to the nest, and Asha, on zoom
16.36 The dark clouds have moved on and the sun has come out.
16.52 A lovely close-up of Asha
16.56 Asha takes off for a comfort break. Still no sign of Brodie.
Osprey found on Odin's perch, but who? A poop, and she turns round. It's Asha having a break. Some lovely close ups of her as she preens.
I am having so much difficulty in trying to post pics, I've given up.
Meanwhile
17.03 PTZ switches to the nest, and Brodie is incubating. Presumably this is the end of the day for staff at the VC.
17.20 Asha returns to the nest, calling gently. Brodie leaves and flies to Odin's perch. Asha continues calling as she prepares herself for incubation.
I have to confess that without the two cams to look at I would still get the two muddled, but I think this is correct!!
Birdie's DU Summaries 2018 https://www.imagicat.com/
Hi Sheila. My understanding of it is that sometimes osprey will not sit on their first egg all the time until the second egg arrives. Then the real incubation begins. Allows the 2 or 3 eggs to hatch closer together so reduces sibling rivalry. With the nest in the US, mom laid first egg and then flew off the nest for hours at a time, sometimes up to 7 hours. Then would come back for a few hours to sit on the egg, then off again for 4 hours. It was warm there so no harm to the egg. Apparently, the egg can survive for a day or two in agreeable weather exposed. Once second egg appears the delayed incubation stops. If there is a third egg, it would still hatch only a couple of days from the date the first one was laid.
Hi scylla. That sure does look like a dead fish. Asha must have hit a nerve for it to flop around. I have edited my daily tally post to remove the "still alive" comment.
Thanks EJFan for the Tim and Kate tips. I've looked them up and found some things I want to read/listen to. I wish I had started down this osprey path 30 years ago.
scylla can you try to use your "zoom in power tools" to get some shots of the egg at 20:49:30 to 20:50:20? We might be able to use them to tag it as the first egg for later on when the chicks start to hatch. Thanks.
Pleased to point you in the right direction Canuck. On the subject of fish delivery, particularly with regard to the effects of weather I recommend Rhys Green.
I had the honour of reading all of the logs kept by the wardens at LG from the inception of Operation Osprey and the privilege of perusing their earliest reports, which were in journals, and, like you, would have loved to have been involved in the 1950s… trying to find the very first eyries.
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Canuck said:scylla can you try to use your "zoom in power tools" to get some shots of the egg at 20:49:30 to 20:50:20? We might be able to use them to tag it as the first egg for later on when the chicks start to hatch. Thanks.
Pity I'm not able to use my UHD screen yet.
I've put the laying date & time on it rather than when the snap was taken.
bluesky2
bluesky2 said:I remember a very informative website
Meant to post this yesterday - ChloeB & Tiger's info site is very good but may not be quite up-to-date. It was my signature when we had sigs!
For those interested in egg patterns I would recommend p67 of RDs excellent book ‘A life of Ospreys.’ - a must for all osprey lovers. Apologies for my paraphrasing but he says that eggs within 1 clutch may be very similar OR vary in colouration. He reports seeing a pure white egg in 1 clutch of 3… but that eggs laid by a female are very similar year to year and colouration can indicate a change in females. interestingly, when I showed him the footage of the 2004 fight and colouration of the 3 subsequent eggs he suspected that the broken egg removed by EJ was actually laid by the intruder in her very brief spell on the nest!
10:09 female leaves nest alarm calling