Loch of the Lowes - 2011

Shelagh7Y said:

Could anyone advise if there is a facility on this blog to send private messages - I have looked, but haven't been able to find any.

The most obvious place is either Facebook or Twitter.

No private messages here. You can leave messages on people's pages but they are not private.

Thanks for that Tiger

Hello Lofty and Hi to Wrinklie and the people from LoTL past blog.

I produced the Book for Lowes "The Lady of The Loch" and I know for a fact that it sold well, so well in fact that it had to be re-ordered, twice if I am not wrong!!!  I cannot believe the stance that SWT has taken on not having any more printed when orders are still coming in as ALL proceeds from book sales, cards, calendars, notelets and Marjories beautiful music CD went directly to them as fundraising.   SWT seem to have rebuked all of our wonderful and genuine efforts to continue fundraising this season and I can only assume (rightly or wrongly) that no further fundraising within SWT is taking place (across the board).  Perhaps they have received a Lottery grant or similar but to cut off all fundraising from their members is not the right way to go about things.  There will be some memberships not renewed this time around and I suspect there will also be rather a lot of negative press.   I understand that they have every right to place a copyright on their site pictures and video stream but they are acting as if all photos and videos taken over last season have been abused by us which is not the case at all! 

Shirley D

Shirley D: I have to agree with your post. Everything that was done by the bloggers last season was for the benefit of SWT. I cannot understand why something that potentially would give them so much income and publicity has been withdrawn. It all seems a bit petty and narrow minded to me. Anyway the most important thing is the ospreys and lets hope that whichever birds nest there this year have 3 healthy chicks.

Good afternoon Shirley D I have a copy of the book and so grateful to you all your hard work for producing such a wonderful tribute to Lady.  Such a shame that no more are going to be produced as there must be many people who would want this as a keepsake  and in memory of Lady if she does not return this year. As you say funding did not just come from the book but from other sources such as cards and calendars. They obviously knew last year that captures and videos were taken and perhaps the problem was that they were being posted on this blog.  I just don't know though.  I do understand copyright issues but to me they seem to have gone overboard slightly and the last thing they want is for people to cancel memberships as this gives them the money to do what they have to do.  I wonder if they are aware of the discussions going on and of course we can longer blog on LOtL so perhaps if they do look at this site they may pick some of the disquiet up.  Of course we don't want to compromise things for the RSPB either.

Hi Shirley

I couldnt get a copy from SWT either & had to order on Amazon - delivery now due in about a week.

The situation with SWT appears very odd! I am a member & was at LOTL on Sunday but I know of many unhappy members regarding the copyright issue & lack of an area for comments. I am sure this will all result in a loss of income from membership & indeed visits to SWT sites in general. They may have to make a U turn on some of their new ideas & I for one certainly hope they do!

Val Gall

Good afternoon all and can see that the situation with LOtL is causing many comments.  Perhaps if they become aawre of the disappoinment of many  people they may have a rethink.  Fingers crossed but at Least Lynette  will have contact with them so we may have a few things to watch.

Hi Val.  You have ordered the book by Helen Armitage I am thinking?  The bloggers book of poetry isn't available on Amazon, it was only available through Lowes.  I too have ordered Helens book as I feel it will be a fascinating story of Lady's life and what happened last season.  SWT are more than happy to stock her book but not ours any longer, particularly when ALL proceeds of ours was going directly to them.  Sadly, I cannot do anything about having it printed privately so those who did not get to purchase one, and I know there are quite a few people, will not now get the opportunity.  I had begun Book 2 in preparation for Lady and/or The Lairds return as the poetry had once again commenced and I was hoping to make it even better having had a head start, as last years book was done in such a hurry and came together quite by accident halfway through the season.  I am also rather disappointed at the fact we cannot view the webcam until an Osprey has appeared, half of the excitement is looking in each day to check the nest as I am doing with all other webcams.  Lowes even had a competition last year for who would be first to spot Lady and I was lucky enough to see her on on the day of her return within about an hour of her landing.   Some of the excitement seems to have been spoiled for us and I don't understand what it is that we have done that was so wrong!

Hello Everyone,

I agree, Toby's charity ride was definitely last year and has simply been left on the new page. It may well be that the cycle ride is happening again but why not word it like that and mention the donations it raised last time?

The other thing that strikes me as odd is that they are asking for donations for satellite trackers. I am almost positive that they already had these from last year because they need to be ordered from the States quite a way in advance to be sure of getting them in time, don't they? They didn't use them because the nest had already been under too much stress with Lady's illness and I am sure they said that they would keep them to use this year. I am happy to be corrected if I have got that wrong but even if I have the money was donated anyway so they should have it already. It all seems rather deceitful to me.

As for the disabling of comments - well, there have been very regular bloggers who would have been ideal to invite as moderators for the comments blog. Most of them would have been only too delighted to have been able to help in this way. Many other organisations employ this method so I can't think it is that difficult to set up.  And then it frees up the people at the nest site to do what they are really there to do.

I didn't blog much on SWT's pages but I was very appreciative of all those who did as I work full time and end up missing a lot of the action.  It was a really convenient and enjoyable way of catching up with the events of the day. Special moments captured on image grabs and video clips were also precious. Those who went the extra stretch and produced poetry and collations and publications are only to be praised in my opinion and I would like to say a big thank you to those people for helping to make my osprey watching so much more enjoyable than it might have been. All of you are special people who must feel as though they have had sand thrown in their faces by SWT for their wonderful efforts.

I will say I can't believe this has much to do with the team at the osprey centre itself. They were so great last year and it doesn't seem to fit with the sort of people they are. I think this has all been decided around the table at an SWT board meeting. Very sad and very short-sighted.

Oh, well. I have finished ranting away. Thanks for listening friends. Here is to a very successful year on the Osprey nest and  whatever might be going on amongst us mere mortals, may our birdies be totally oblivious :)

Rant away Foxtail  it would appear that many people feel the same way.