Breaking News: First Hatching underway

first glimpse of egg hatching

7am : Our female ospreys behaviour changed this morning and as her breakfast arrived a few minutes ago, she was reluctant to take it from the male- when she finally stood up we saw why: the egg tooth of the first chick was clearly visible breaking through the shell. The process of hatching can take many hours, so this is just the first stage- but BRILLIANT NEWS! Stay tuned for more updates.

11.30am Update: We have been getting tantalising glimpes of the first eggs hatching hole, where the chicks egg tooth has broken the shell.

The hole gets bigger
3pm Update:
We are still getting great veiws of the wee chicks beak as it slowly makes its way into the world. It is totally NORMAL for the hatching process to take anything up to 24hrs– in fact it is crucial that it happens slowly so the chick has time to detact itself from the eggs inner membrane safely as it dries out.
We are unusally lucky to have such great close up cameras to detect this very early stage of hatching- at most nests these tiny signs are invisible and the hatching only becomes apparent at the very end stage.
The first hole in the shell is crucial for allowing oxegen in and will gradually widen , before the egg cracks around to release the chick. Some people have asked if it will be ok as it isn’t being fed- the chick will survive this first 24hr period, as it did incubation- nourished by the nutrients stored in the yolk sack in the egg- one of natures cleverest designs.
The chicks beak visible in the egg hole

4pm Update: Webcams

There have been some problems with the webcam today, caused by the server struggling to cope with the demand from so many people wanting to log on at the same time.  We have been doing with everything we can with our web hosting company to increse capacity but would ask for your patience. Many thanks

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Preface

first glimpse of egg hatching 7am : Our female ospreys behaviour changed this morning and as her breakfast arrived a few minutes ago, she was reluctant to take it from …

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