Weekly Chat, Sunday April 3 2011

Hi all: very late starting this - was gone most of the day. I saw Odin on the nest - brilliant!  Now off to check on Lady and, hopefully, catch up on chat!

  • margobird said:

    Thanks for that ALICAT hopefully she will get past the biting stage but I suppose to her it is just play although rather painful for the person on the receiving end.  She is gorgeous though.

    have just given her her fist shower down to clean her up she didn't like it she was crying

  • Margo - Like everyone else, I send you hugs and prayers for you and the family to get the strength you are needing.

    Everyone - I don't post much these days but read and enjoy all your contributions. I knew that this would happen - when I was in France EJ returned and now we are going on our narrowboat holiday and will miss action on the nest for two weeks.

    Bye for now

  • ALIcAT hope she got lots of cuddles after that.

     

    Got to go now and get ready for trip to London to see a show so have a good day all.

    Margobird

  • SheilaFE said:

    What fabulous news from Valmc.  An offspring of EJ and Henry, would you believe it!  As I have said over and over again, ospreys really amaze me.  Knowing the journeys they have to travel twice a year with all the dangers they have to overcome, the fact that they return to the nest most years - what superb navigation skills.  How do they manage it.  Of course all this information would not be collected were it not for the dedication of folk like George Waterston, Roy Dennis, Valmc and the band of unsung heroes who observe these birds - not forgetting folk like Tiger, Alan, jsb who collect the data!!  Thank you all.

    And our wonderful pair are sitting, clinging, to the nest at present as I am sure the wind gets even more strong!

    Thank you. I will take a screengrab of this just in case it disappears! :)

  • Good afternoon Heather B  and thanks for the hugs and prayers.  Shame you are going to miss the action over the next couple of weeks but do enjoy your narrowboat holiday.  Just good to know that both EJ and Odin returned to grace our lives once again.

    Margobird

  • And I second it ALL Tiger - like Sheila I'm so appreciative of all the observations of everyone far more 'seasoned' than I am in the affairs of Ospreys. Thank you one and all.

  • Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4

    HeatherB – do so enjoy your narrow boat hol. We and the birds will all be here when you get back J

    Djoan – how fabulous to have a Bluetit nest so close to your window – lovely pics

    Well done Margo – a great achievement with Billy. I’m so pleased for you both.

    Alicat – aaaahhhhh.

  • Afternoon all,

    Margo : Sorry that the latest news regarding your sister is not good.

    Djoan: Thanks for the blue tit pics. We have a nestbox that is used for roosting by a blue tit but they have never nested there.

    HeatherB : I hope that you enjoy your narrow boat holiday.

    Thanks to everyone else for the chat.pics etc.

    This morning LadyP and I went to the Lyndon reserve at Rutland Water. As we were walking from the visitor centre to the hides we saw what we thought was a squirrel. As we approached it turned out to be a stoat. The first one I has seen for a long time. We then continued to the Shallow Water hide where we watched the ospreys 5R and his mrs for a couple of hours. They spent most of the time off the nest preening, flying around, bathing and mating. Conditions were quite idyllic with the temp around 21c. Had a picnic in the car and went home totally relaxed. There cant be anywhere better in the country for watching ospreys. I have posted a couple of pics on the Rutland thread.

  • Alan I commented on the Rutland site about your wonderful photos. What a lovely time you had.

    I have only ever been to Rutland to the Bird Fair, and this was when I was already enthused about osprey.  We walked, I think, to the Anglia Water centre and then to a lake, but I don't know exactly where we went!  We did see osprey there, and I guess it was Manton Bay, but again, not sure.  Apparently it would take me about 1.5hrs to get there.  I will have to set the satnav and have a go!

    Birdie's DU Summaries 2018   https://www.imagicat.com/

  • Have come home for lunch, minus a tree, but with some other purchases - we did not see the kind of tree we had in mind, and he has now decided he might like a Conference Pear.  We went to two different Garden Centres & I am off to look at another one tomorrow, to continue the search.  However, enjoyed a nice cup of tea in a Cafe (no cake!), and managed to slip in a new bird feeder with his purchases of vegetable seeds. Also bought some new gravel for the front garden, as its all been looking very tired and untidy.

    Have managed to find the USB cable for my mobile phone, so now can finally put up the pics of some enormous Cow Parsley I photographed last summer, near Lymm in Cheshire.  Don't know if you remember my remarking on the size of it, and I had no other camera with me....

     

    --to give an idea of the size, I asked OH to stand next to it....

     

    he is several feet away, as it was boggy there, & also looking down upon it as the ground falls away, but you can certainly see that its no ordinary weed!