Blue XD

Cringer, I'm not sure I'm very conifident about your assertion that ospreys who overwinter in Spain will have better overall survival rates due to the shorter migrations. The downside of not migrating to Africa is exposure to European winters, and we have evidence that climate change is giving rise to greater variability in weather conditions around a mean climate temperature which does increase with time. Thus those over-wintering in Spain do run the risk of running into an unusually cold winter now and again, which could have devastating consequences for them.

Perhaps a reasonable assumption, bearing in mind that they have been on the planet for 10+ million years, is that if their prey species go deeper because of the cold weather, then they will go further south in a particularly severe winter. All the indications, including the number of ospreys overwintering in France, and the latest date for Ospreys being seen in the UK, is that this is a trend that is set to continue. Some are predicting, and I would not for one disagree, that within the next decade we will find an osprey overwintering in say Devon. Watch this space.

I really dont think, from an energetic point of view, that you can disagree with my argument that Ospreys overwintering on Spain will have better longevity than Ospreys that overwinter in Africa - providing they have sufficient food overwinter in Spain.

I have to say, fortunately now Green J has a nest to come back to and if Blue XD had not gone to LG then not.

I am pleased and hope Blue XD and Green J raise a family again but now think this nest needs monitoring closely as is now well known about.

I am not scientific but realistic :)

edit. This has been bothering me as it was not meant to sound blunt.. I am not very scientific but I am learning and very interested :)

A good outcome for all eventually :)

I'm hoping we can have a photo of XD's nest when he and GreenJ are properly in residence :-)

I was wondering whether there is an update on XD's nest.  

We are also left with the question of whether Caledonia and Alba are XD's chicks, or Odin's..... or whether Cally is XD's and Alba Odin's off-spring.  I cannot help thinking that both chicks must have the same father.  They are so alike in so many ways now it is just the two of them.

Cuddles:

This is from Roys blog ~

What dreadful weather

19 May 2012

I've been monitoring ospreys nests this past week - viewing them from a distance with my Swarovski scope. Trying to check colour rings as well as the state of incubation. It's been a dismal time with the incubating females looking absolutely 'drookit' with the rain, snow and sleet. I saw several females having a spell off the eggs while their mates incubated, they were sodden and their plumage very bedraggled. ON Wednesday I was in Sutherland checking a remote nest to see if they had laid eggs in one of our pole nests and they had - I saw a change-over between the male and female in between snow and sleet showers - a bitter wind which at one point set off the ice alarm on my car - in May! On Thursday when I drove across Dava Moor to Strathspey it was white with snow - really bad for ground nesting waders and red grouse. The Cairngorms were really snow covered and any returning dotterel must have headed to lower hills as there was no where for them to find food. I saw Old Green J perched by her nest preening away in the rain while blue XD incubated - it must be off-putting for him to settle down in a wet nest and on top of that fishing must be difficult in the cold wet weather. Not very far from Rothiemurchus estate, I found an unattached female building up an old nest - what a pity Rothiemurchus did not come back to Strathspey - I'm sure he would have found her and may be there would have been time for a late breeding attempt. After flying north from the Scottish Borders on the 16th he turned back from Strathdon without coming over the mountains but the snow and the rain/sleet showers and low clouds would not have encouraged him. Nesting birds need a dramatic improvement in the weather or it's going to be a poor year for some species. Supposed to be better on Monday - hope so.

I guess he is rather busy at the mo to update the blog ;-)

I expect Roy is busy with the ringing and tagging just now, it maybe a while before we are able to find out what has been happening with all these Ospreys we want news on.

scylla said:

Bringing fish???  bringing fish??????/

Two extreme tiddlers, one a day at evening, and of which he has noshed most