A quiet day on the osprey nest again today so far – which is really very reassuring, as it seems all is well. The female left nest early this morning for well over an hour- perhaps she was off fishing for herself which is unusual but not unheard of. The male brought in a huge stick this afternoon and promptly dropped it right on his mates back- which did not amuse her at all!

We have had a few more reports of ospreys laying four eggs and hatching these successfully, including an incidence in Grampian region of Scotland in 2010. Speaking to Roy Dennis today, he again asserted that only around 1% of ospreys here have four eggs, however, in some other populations, such as North America, it seems to be more common, but no one knows why. Another reader, Marita Ingervo from Finland has also been in touch to say

“Biologist Matts Finnlund our ringer in Hailuoto has gone through his material from ospreys nests, and from 684 ospreys comparable nesting, 8 had 4 eggs, but in one nest was with the same female three summers in a row with  4 chicks.” We love this kind of information from colleagues working with ospreys elsewhere- it’s absolutely fascinating.

The rest of today’s blog is dedicated to some brilliant pictures taken by our volunteer Phil Hannah of our male in action this week- with a  whopper of  fish and bring mobbed by crows! Many thanks Phil