by Lindsey, Wildlife Interpretation Officer

There’s been much to-ing and fro-ing on the nest today with one of the largest ever sticks coming into the nest. It looked like it might have been a bit more than he could handle and he mucked about with it on the nest for a while. As usual she promptly reorganised everything he did! She was eating snow this morning (yes it was snowing heavily again this morning not that the Ospreys were bothered)  we’ve not seem this often before we’re not sure if it was because she was thirsty or simply clearing the nest.

A third Osprey was spotted at lunchtime, flying around the whole area and over both Ospreys before disappearing again  – was it the new female? It was impossible to tell but it wouldn’t be a surprise if we see her again, its quite common for unattached birds to visit occupied nests either out of curiosity or to try and muscle in.

There’s been lots of mating attempts today – with varying success, her favourite perch looks a bit wobbly now and that seemed to make it a bit more challenging. We are now all anticipating eggs, yesterday was the first possible laying date but its more likely to be later this week, we’ll be watching her closely for tell tale changes in behaviour. The Osprey watch is now in full swing with the 24 hour underway, we’re running training all this week for new Osprey watchers so if you’re interested in getting involved contact Ospreys@swt.org.uk.

We’ve just had a fish delivery which she’s disappeared with so he’s rearranging the nest.

Congratulations to Glaslyn Ospreys who have their first egg, which was laid on Saturday afternoon, will our nest be next? The Kielder Ospreys also haven’t hung about and are getting on with both nest building and mating and they’ve have some very exciting news about the origin of one of their birds, check their blog out for all the info.

A couple of Osprey FAQs:

Q.  What happens if the male doesn’t bring enough fish to the female during courtship – would she find another mate instead?

A. Firstly she would nag the male incessantly to get him to do his job, we know from previous years she’s very good at this! If that didn’t work her loyalty is to the nest rather than the male so she would accept the advances of another male if there was one around.

Q. Camouflage – the brown and while obviously works well amongst the trees in Scotland but how does it work in Africa which so different?

I put this to Emma the Ranger and this was her answer

A. Great question I”ll answer this once I’ve been to Senegal to try and see Blue YD!