.
Thread for April 2024
All pictures and videos ©️RSPBLochGarten&WildlifeWindows
Please read Korky's comprehensive March 2024 intro
Asha & Brodie
The partnership has matured this season, with Asha continuing her good female role (and she loves nest-building) and Brodie being more reliable, both fishing and incubating.
The pair have fought their way thru all kinds of nasty weather - snow, wind and rain - and intruders, including the dreaded KL5 Klive, have been a nuisance but not dangerous...
so far.
21 April @ 10:47
24 April @ 14:06
27 April @ 13:27
EDIT
********
Sadly, the month of May heralded irresistible aggression from BlueKL5 "Klive", who had ruined the end of last season for the 2 juvies.
Within the first 2 days Klive had driven Brodie from the area (tho Brodie did return a couple of times to dive-bomb Klive, to no effect) and destroyed the eggs. He commenced to woo Asha clumsily, selfishly and inappropriately, as can be seen from the following pages.
IMAGICAT
22 May
04:02 female to nest, followed 1 minute later by Klive. Female begins food soliciting. Klive flies to perch close to old nest and female continues to solicit.
9:36 nice male redstart on zoom cam
EJFan said:9:36 nice male redstart on zoom cam
It was on the nest perch and the cam perch and back again to the nest perch - but this is just its initial appearance on nest perch, unedited:
Wonderful captures from everyone, pop in now and again.
http://scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk/things-to-do/wildlife-webcams/loch-of-lowes/
RSPB Giving Nature a Home
Beautiful bird and fantastic capture. In the hand the colours are even more amazing!
I am so glad you picked up the redstart, Scylla. It is stunning.
My take on the day so far
Wednesday 22 May 2024
04:00 Asha arrives on a misty murky morning.
04:02 She flies to the nest perch
04.02 KL5 arrives on the nest, and goes into a relaxed mantle with his back to her, looking very coy. Asha calls
04.03 Asha drops to the nest to yell louder and closer to KL5! Can you hear me now??
04.05 Klive flies to Odin's perch in the gloom.
04.08 Mist rolls in. I assume Asha can still see him, as she calls, but I can't see him! Yes, 04.09 mist thins a bit and I can see a white blob of his head, moving, and she continues calling
04.10 KLive leaves the perch and flies to the right beyond the nest. Asha watches over to the right.
04.46 Mist has lifted. Asha is on the nest still calling and looking over the back towards the right. The direction she was looking when Klive left Odin's perch.
04.47 Asha flew off, chipping.
04.48 She returns and lands on the nest perch. Did she have a word in Clive's shell like!! She doesn't call.
05.07 He silence was short lived. She drops to the nest, fish soliciting, seriously. There could be a fish in the offing.
05.34 A bird call startles Asha into silence. I think it might be a chaffinch. Has Radio Chaffinch returned!! LOL
05.36 FISH #1 delivery from Klive. Asha grabs it
05.37 Asha has a tussle, but it didn't last too long. It was a tail end, but a reasonable size. She flew off to the left, taking a circular root behind the nest to a perch to eat it. Klive moves the long thick stick nearer the edge, checks his talons, cleans beak.
05.39 Klive nest cups
05.49 Klive flew, dropping to the right.#
05.50 Asha returned, fishless, and calling before she landed and continued as she prowled the nest looking for bits, cleaning her beak! That tail end wasn’t big enough for a beautiful female!
06.43 Asha flew to the left ENS
09.33 A male redstart on the nest perch. Staff are in and zoom in. He is beautiful.
09.35 He flew from the perch to cam perch, and cam followed him. I hadn't realised how pretty they are!
09.36 A sound of a cuckoo, followed by the chatter of the redstart from the cam perch.
09.37 He flew back to the nest perch.
09.39 Redstart drops to the nest and has flown.
10.02 Klive is on the sticky dead tree near the PTZ tower.
No one lands on the nest until 15.00 when Klive lands for a few minutes.
PTZ returns to the nest, and stay there until 12.49
12.49 Cam has a tour of the boggy and tree area, first left then right to the VC, back left zooming in on changes in colour or perches. Back to the right, pausing over a silver birch and beyond where it paused, before moving again.
12.55 Back to the VC. Wave everyone, and zooming in left near what I queried as a sat dish (it may well not be).
13.25 The cam continued to wander until 13.25 when it stayed over a rather grand tree in the foreground.
14.00 It suddenly moved to the flat topped tree. Asha had a huge fish!! Another presumably caught by her. The cam is very wobbly. Asha has already eaten the head, the tail if swinging well below the bough every time she adjusts her hold on it. She won't go hungry today.
14.27 She just takes the occasional bite and sits watching around her.
15.00 Dark clouds rolling in. Klive landed on the nest.
15.03 Klive flew off to the left. Rain drops fall, lightly
15.39 Cam draws back, and shows where the tree is in relation to the nest. It is behind, and offset to the left.
15.46 Zoom to Asha on the bare topped tree
15.53 Rain drops on nest cam
15.53 Klive landed on the nest. PTZ had a lovely wing span landing.
15.56 He would have seen Asha and her fish.
15.57 Klive flies off ENS and PTZ zooms out to Asha and her fish, and stays there 16.33
Has Klive gone fishing again?
Birdie's DU Summaries 2018 https://www.imagicat.com/
nest cam has lost six minutes!! 17.33 he wasn't there, and in a blink of an eye 17.39 Klive on was the nest perch!! And it pouring. The same thing happened on PTZ. They must have had a outage.
It appears to have gone down again 17.51
May 22, 2024 - Day complete
Fish: 5:36:45 (KL5), 11:31:18 (Asha)
Mating: 14:58 U (the video skipped). All with KL5.
The (S)uccess, (F)ailure or (U)nknown indication is purely my untrained observation.
0 S, 0 F, 1 U.
Thank you so much to our two treasures, SHEILA and CANUCK
Mustn't forget our early-morning alerter, EJFAN
It seems to have been horizontal rain with blusters and flurries all night so far.
Thanks for the thanks dear lady. I totally agree about the horizontal rain comment- but according to BBC weather currently Aviemore is experiencing ‘a gentle breeze!’ But have to admit I have never seen a meteorologist without a raincoat together with sun tan lotion in their briefcase.
Awaiting the arrival of the first bird of the 23rf and hoping the female gets more than a tail today. She should NOT be fishing for herself! But I guess a tail is better than no fish at all! Hmmpphhh!