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CRinger
20/02/2012 02:31

For those who are interested in osprey 'ancestry'.............

With regard to Sue C's post: of 19th March 2011:

2003       EJ lost her nest to a more aggressive female,

The female in question was Green 7B. EJ had laid eggs and, having seen off EJ, Green 7B bought in nesting material which she placed over the eggs. Green 7B was unsuccessful in breeding that year - but in 2002 she had (as a 2 year old) arrived late at the Loch Garten nest. There had been many disputes between male ospreys at Garten that year as the male osprey (Olly) who had 'reigned supreme' for many years had not returned. Green 7B persuaded the conquering male to feed her, but did not produce eggs.

Green 7B also had an ancestral link to LG - she was Olly's grand-daughter.

Some people think Ospreys are a matter of life and death. I don't like that attitude. I can assure them it is much more serious than that. 

  • 17/01/2013 15:18 in reply to bright&breezy

    First of all I thought I would revive this thread because there are so many interesting discussions and information on it, I had obviously read the thread a year ago but when reading again 10 months later I couldnt remember half the things discussed on it.  

    Secondly Lowry sent me this photograph taken by her of the Osprey Nest in 1993 when she visited there, so I thought Id do a little research to find out what was happening in 1993 at Loch Garten, and found this thread.    Not sure if this was taken prior to the loss of the female that year, maybe Lowry will tell us if she can remember the date she was there. 

    I also found that Tiger had been discussing the same year way back on the Puleston message board in 2007 and this is his post regarding the same.   (Hope you don't mind me copying it Tiger)....   

     

    Tiger 06/15/07 07:04 pm This is such an almost exact replay of events in 1993. Except that on that occasion it was the adult female who died.

    See.

    Super-Dad

    In 1993, a tragedy struck the Loch Garten osprey nest. Our regular male Ollie, delivered a fish to the nest to his eagerly awaiting family. As soon as he landed on the nest we knew something was wrong, for entwined around the fish was fishing line.

    As we looked on helplessly, one of the two chicks, only a few weeks old, immediately became entangled in the line. The female, seeing there was a problem, moved closer to her chick but herself became entangled in the line. After several attempts to detach herself, she took off, fortunately for the chick, taking the fishing line with her. Her sacrifice for her chick was greater than we could ever imagine. She never returned that day. We know she would never have abandoned her
    chicks at this stage, so we were left imagining the worst.

    The loss of our female was a great shock to all at Loch Garten but this soon gave way to our greater concern for the chicks. We were left with a young male who, if the chicks were to survive, was now responsible not only for catching the fish but for taking over the female's role of feeding the fish to the chicks. Could he do it?

    If he did accept the challenge, would the chicks survive alone on the nest while he was away fishing? What would we do if he abandoned them? All we could do was wait and hope for a
    miracle.

    A miracle came, the morning after the female's disappearance, Ollie appeared with a fish and for the first time since his arrival in 1990 at Loch Garten, we saw him remove small bits of fish and cautiously feed them to the chicks. Ollie in fact became an expert in chick-feeding and despite all the odds, both of the chicks survived and on the 21st of July the first chick fledged, followed soon after by the second chick.

     

    Is it any wonder that Ollie is so highly regarded by all the long term Ospreyologists, I believe he was around until his first year of not returning 2002.

     

     EJ's Memorial  Balgavies Loch Ospreys 2023

  • 17/01/2013 15:31 in reply to MaryGK

    Oh wow that is a fantastic picture. Pictures of Ollie have been very hard to come by and this may be the earliest.

    1993 was the year that made Ollie a hero. It was not always so. In 1990 his first two chicks died after fledging. It is not clear why this was so but the supply of fish has been cited as a reason.

     

    Tiger Signature

  • 17/01/2013 15:38 in reply to Tiger

    Tiger that was awful, to reach fledging stage then die, glad there was no webcam around that year, would have been horrific to see that.

     EJ's Memorial  Balgavies Loch Ospreys 2023

  • 17/01/2013 16:00 in reply to MaryGK

    Unknown said:

    Tiger that was awful, to reach fledging stage then die, glad there was no webcam around that year, would have been horrific to see that.

     

    I cannot be sure of this but I think Ollie arrived with his partner in 1990 and evicted the sitting tenants. So I do not suppose that they were too popular for that.

     

    Tiger Signature

  • 17/01/2013 16:02 in reply to MaryGK

    Unknown said:
    First of all I thought I would revive this thread because there are so many interesting discussions and information on it, I had obviously read the thread a year ago but when reading again 10 months later I couldnt remember half the things discussed on it.  

    It was a fast in furious thread but then EJ turned up to prove that she was no innocent litle girl by have an affair with the mature man across the way.

    Tiger Signature

  • 17/01/2013 16:03 in reply to Tiger

    Well as you have said before nothing is every straightforward with Ospreys, so Ollie went from Villain to Hero in the space of a few years.   Wonder what will happen this year.

     EJ's Memorial  Balgavies Loch Ospreys 2023

  • 17/01/2013 16:06 in reply to Tiger

    Hazel b said:

    First of all I thought I would revive this thread because there are so many interesting discussions and information on it, I had obviously read the thread a year ago but when reading again 10 months later I couldnt remember half the things discussed on it.  

    It was a fast in furious thread but then EJ turned up to prove that she was no innocent litle girl by have an affair with the mature man across the way.

    [/quote]

    Yes EJ let all her supporters down by having an affair, LOL  The Courtcase was on another thread though wasnt it Q&A I think, was brilliant stuff!  

     EJ's Memorial  Balgavies Loch Ospreys 2023

  • 17/01/2013 16:15 in reply to MaryGK

    Unknown said:
    Yes EJ let all her supporters down by having an affair, LOL  The Courtcase was on another thread though wasnt it Q&A I think, was brilliant stuff!

    You are right it was on the EJ thread.

    Tiger Signature

  • 17/01/2013 16:31 in reply to Tiger

    Thanks for reviving this thread, MARY  -  and for TIGER's comments:  most interesting :-)

  • 17/01/2013 16:49 in reply to Lindybird

    Tiger yes the Courtcase was on the EJ thread, such wonderful banter, whatever happened to Cringer, hope he returns like EJ in March.

     EJ's Memorial  Balgavies Loch Ospreys 2023