Welcome to Loch Arkaig Ospreys season 8
Will Louis and Dorcha return to Nest 2?
Will someone take up residence in Nest 1?
Will any of Louis' chicks with Aila and Dorcha be sighted?
2024 season:
Louis arrived on Thursday 28th March at 15.18.38
Dorcha arrived on Saturday 30th March at 14.21.27
They reunited on Saturday 30th March at 16.13.37
First egg laid on Sunday 14th March at 11.13.48 Congratulations!!
Second egg laid on Wednesday 17th March at 05.55.52
Dorcha is injured in an eagle attack on Friday 19th April at 11.08
Third egg laid on Saturday 20th April at 02.26.08
Welcome little bob - first chick hatches! Wednesday 22nd May at 06.16.45
Welcome little bob - second chick hatches - it's twins! Wednesday 22nd May at 22.26.15
Welcome little bob - third chick hatches! Friday 24th May at 16.36.10
Sad death of little chick three Sunday 16th June at approx 19.02
Louis disappears, last seen Wednesday 26th June 11.22.56
Louis returns but is clearly not well Saturday 29th June 08.26.37
Decision made to place the two surviving chicks in a translocation programme Sunday 30th June
Licensed raptor team collects the chicks Monday 1st July 10.15
Chicks 1&2 arrive at Pego-Oliva marsh, Spain and ringed Yellow 1JW (C1) & 1JR (C2) Thursday 11th July
Sadly, 1JR (C2) started having seizures and succumbed to a heart condition Tuesday 23rd July
FLEDGE! The surviving chick 1JW (C1) found his wings and flew Thursday 25th July 3pm
Dorcha last seen on camera (Nest One) 11.19.43 Saturday 27th July
Louis last seen on camera (Nest Two) 13.31.18 Tuesday 30th July
1JW (C1) last seen at Pego-Oliva marsh (Spain) on Tuesday 10th September
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Link to February 2024 - May 2024 thread:
loch-arkaig---the-woodland-trust---february-2024---may-2024
2023 season highlights:
Louis returned on Sunday 2nd April at 12.26.54
Dorcha returned on Sunday 9th April 08.09.46
They reunited on Monday 10th April at 12.33.03
First egg laid Friday 21st April at 05.44.19
A Golden Eagle touched down on Saturday 22nd April at 11.50.56
Second egg laid Monday 24th April at 07.03.30
Third egg laid on Thursday 27th April at 07.35.39
Violent Owl strike sends an egg overboard 23rd May at 00.26.46
First chick hatches - and it's Egg3! 31st May at 13.08
Another Owl strike - Bob's unharmed. 6th June at 00.18.16
It's a boy! The chick is ringed LY7 on 9th July around 10am
Fledge! LY7 finds his wings and flies 19th July at 15.05.11
Hello Ludo! The voting results are in and LY7 is named Ludo! 19th July
Dorcha leaves on her travels - last seen on 17th August at 06.30.34
Louis was last seen on 24th August at 15.50.34
Ludo LY7 was last seen* on 25th August at 10.03.28 (*on the nest)
Ludo sighted in France 24th September! Still there 8th October
Link to 2023 thread:
https://community.rspb.org.uk/placestovisit/lochgartenospreys/f/loch-garten-ospreys/282446/loch-arkaig---the-woodland-trust---march-2023-to-february-2024
Brief history of the nests:
20.21.57 The submissive chick who was prevented from getting any part of fish number two by the dominant chick (https://youtu.be/T1ef16z0eKs) searches desperately for scraps and nibbles bark, sticks and eats grass.
It does find a few tiny scraps but continues to cry piteously, totally ignored by mum Dorcha and the dominant chick.
Fortunately, the plan is for the licensed raptor experts to climb the tree and hand-feed both chicks again tomorrow.
Daily summary Saturday 29th June 2024
Midnight, and a tumultuous day ends. What started with the triumphal return of Louis in the morning, seemingly unharmed and bearing a fish, quickly turned to worry as he only brought half a fish and the dominant chick got most of that. The irony was that just as licensed raptor expert Lewis was preparing to climb the nest tree and hand-feed each chick a mackerel as he'd done the previous day, Louis appeared with fish, and inadvertently cost the chicks the chance of a solid meal. It was around 8pm before Louis returned with a second half fish, and the submissive chick was bullied away from the fish and not allowed to eat, forcing it to seach for scraps and eat bits of grass. The fish tally now stands at two hundred and fifty three including Dorcha's contribution of one fish. There was much discussion on the forum, often at great length, of the best way forward, but behind the scenes, George and Woodland Trust Scotland were consulting the experts and a plan has been drawn up. This includes Lewis feeding the chicks tomorrow and a strong possibility of the chicks joining a translocation programme under the auspices of the UK's foremost raptor expert, Roy Dennis. Link to George's comprehensive post outlining the details: https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/osprey-cam/?ht-comment-id=15217474. In other news, Garry LV0 visited Nest One twice, and was in turn visited by a male Osprey who looked like Prince, the mate of sometime visitor Affric 152. It was wet and windy overnight and rained on and off during the day - tonight's forecast is for drizzle and light winds, with the prospect of a cloudy but mostly dry day tomorrow.
Night cam switches on (day cam): Nest One 23.55.42 (03.27.10); Nest Two 23.14.07 (03.56.34)
Today’s videos:
https://youtu.be/eNupYkdkQ8w N2 The welcome reappearance of Louis, bringing fish number one 08.26.37
https://youtu.be/Q6y-LYkhTFo N1 Garry LV0 is intruded on - is it Prince? 09.20.18
https://youtu.be/eANzFRFw8ik N1 Garry LV0 returns with a stick 09.34.07
https://youtu.be/T1ef16z0eKs N2 Fish number two, but only one chick gets to eat 19.56.39
https://youtu.be/TiKtuGDYD4I N2 Submissive chick desperate for food eats grass 20.21.57
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Blast from the past, this day in previous years:
https://youtu.be/6PfZNX338WY N1 Is the littlest Osplet attacking mum or just begging for food? 2019
https://youtu.be/VsVBpGjxCds N1 Aila's pleased to see a fish but one chick prefers doing flight prep 2020
https://youtu.be/Hi01r-gxXb4 N1 Legendary Louis and the midnight fish - well, nearly 2020
https://youtu.be/jxFvhSbXcIQ N2 Drama as an intruder tries to land: Louis gives chase 2022
https://youtu.be/yIWqt92hZEI N2 Yet another intrusion by the stranger: Dorcha gives chase 2022
https://youtu.be/-nguqm1IS1c N1 Affric rejects Garry's advances, stays until a stick falls 2023
https://youtu.be/PP5IneygLtA N2 Open - Squeak - Gulp - Repeat! Fish number two 2023
https://youtu.be/t4k0cpkaBv8 N1 Affric finally gets a fish from Garry 2023
https://youtu.be/CtkFrypee0Y N2 Four week old chick looks enormous exercising its new wings 2023
https://youtu.be/qX0KLkUsPr4 N2 On a very wet night mumbrella Dorcha makes the chick seem invisible 2023
June 30
The licensed raptor worker has fed both chicks this morning and left a lot of fish on the nest for the whole family. Both chicks are self feeding just now.
08.19
08.20
08.42
Although they can’t yet use their talons to hold the fish, the flesh is soft enough to pull pieces off the fillets.
08.43
©️WTS
08.16.00 The submissive chick has taken a piece of the fish (pollack? It's not mackerel) left by the licensed raptor team this morning.
The dominant chick notices this and despite piles of fish on the nest, it attacks its sibling who cowers but half-mantles over its fish and refuses to drop it.
08.17.59 After a few moments the dominant one moves away and resumes eating, and the other keeps a wary eye out then starts eating its fish
09:16:48 An Osprey lands, grabs a bit of mackerel, and departs immediately.
Slowed down and zoomed in, it looks like Dorcha rather than an intruder
(Zoomed with super slo-mo repeat)
Thank you so much for your very full report of the days' events. Such a tense and worrying time. We just have to remember that is happening on other nests, nests which don't have the fish fairy helping them.
Birdie's DU Summaries 2018 https://www.imagicat.com/
NEWS Hasta la vista, chicks! Viva España!
George WTS just posted:
Good evening everyone.
Having kept the situation under review again today it has been decided that the chicks will be removed from the nest tomorrow morning and handed on to the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation to be translocated to Spain.
The nest will likely be visited around 10am depending on how the weather turns out. The chicks will be given another good feed on the nest before being taken out of the tree.
I know you will have lots of questions about every last detail of this procedure but I don’t have much of that at the moment.
They will go to a specialised aviary in Inverness where they will be hand fed and looked after over the following days. Beak swabs will be taken to test them for avian flu and some other infections required before they embark overseas. Assuming all is well with that, they will be flown out to Spain on July 10th likely with ten other Scottish chicks.
This programme was already planned and in motion and it has been incredibly fortuitous that the timing fits with the emergence of our crisis on the nest at Arkaig.
We have had a number of tough decisions to take in the last week but actually this last one has been quite easy. There seems to be something wrong with Louis, possibly compounded by poor fishing conditions. The rate at which he has been fishing is just not enough to give the chicks a reasonable chance of survival. Even if they struggled through to the end of the summer it is felt very unlikely they would survive migration, which calls for considerable reserves of energy.
We are fairly certain at least one of the chicks would have died by now had there not been supplementary feeding on Friday and this morning.
When Louis was absent after Wednesday we wanted to at least wait to see if he would return before stepping in. Even though he returned on Saturday, there is something not right with him and we cannot have confidence he will return to form in time to stop the chicks from perishing. Before his disappearance he perched for most of Wednesday after bringing in one fish. Today he perched up for eight hours again after bringing one fish. The family needs more than that if it is to build up enough strength to survive migration.
The window of opportunity to enter the chicks in this translocation is brief and we did not want to be in the position of hanging on longer to see if the situation improved for our family. By removing them we hopefully take the pressure off the adults and allow them to replenish themselves in the coming weeks.
Continuing to feed them ourselves at Loch Arkaig is just not a feasible option. There are risks every time we go in. If the family is not viable on its own efforts its best the chicks get a chance in Spain.
Louis and Dorcha will almost certainly stick around with the nest as the centre of their partnership before migrating a bit earlier than usual so we will hopefully see them for a good while yet.
As I said previously - Scotland currently enjoys a population of beavers, red kites and sea eagles because other countries gifted us some of theirs. It is marvellous that Scotland is giving this gift to Spain and I think we should be proud that the Arkaig pair are going to be part of it. They will be ringed as having fledged in Spain but their highland heritage will be on record. My understanding is they are going to be GPS tagged so we should be able to receive updates about them.
I am sure some people will post for or against what is happening, which is fine, but please don’t get into rows about it. There is absolutely no point. The decision has been made. It was our decision to make and we did so in consultation with osprey experts. I hope that even those who don’t like what is happening will acknowledge that we have given thorough and honest consideration of all the options before coming to this conclusion.
We were driven at all times to do what is best for the ospreys - both our family and the species as a whole. Our two chicks will get a better chance to survive. The species’ range will be increased making it more resilient in the years ahead.
We’ll miss them of course. But then we would have been parting with them in a few weeks time anyway.
And as some of you say at the end of every season - “Don’t be sad to see them go. The journey is their purpose.”
Please enjoy the last few hours of them on the livestream.
We will keep you updated on how things go tomorrow.
That is all from me tonight though.
Thank you Geemeff, I think it’s for the best for all 4 of this family. At least the submissive chick won’t be bullied anymore and Louis and Dorcha can concentrate on themselves, building up their strength.
Like Sheila, I’ve been thinking about our other families in the area too and hoping that if the male is fit and well, that they’ve been managing to get through this tough time.
Sunday 30th June:
19.25.27 With the dominant chick full to the brim and resting, the submissive chick calls for food and comes forward to where Dorcha has the tail end of the fish Louis brought earlier.
Dorcha begins the feeding, and the chick enjoys a tranquil calm feed. Could be the last one, as tomorrow the chicks are off to a translocation programme with Roy Dennis, and eventually move to Spain.