by Lindsey

Incubation continues as normal with our male and female Osprey taking turns to sit on the eggs. Last year our male spent much of his time on perches that were easily seen from the hides but we’re not so lucky this year as he seems to be following our female’s lead and staying out of sight. He once again proved his excellent fisherbird credentials by bringing in a large Blue Trout this morning, only the third of the season so far, she was away for about three hours so it must have been a good meal. Brown Trout is still the favourite catch with Pike lagging behind in a poor second, this time last year it was all about the Pike. He’s still putting things on his back while he incubates and today he added a feather to it, perhaps he feels he needs extra!

Those of you watching the webcam will have noticed:

– It’s playing up again – its been reported and we’re waiting for the techobods to sort it

– There’s a large tail feather in the nest, this is from our female and is part of her annual moult

Last week we told you about the first ducklings of the season and today we spotted the first goslings being looked after by their parents, two careful and protective Canada Geese.  The chicks being small, yellow and fluffy they couldn’t look more different!  Not all our Great Crested Grebe have paired up and there’s been four birds swimming in front of the hides all day occasionally displaying along with a mixed group of thirty odd Tufted Duck who obviously haven’t paired up yet either.

Finally a beautiful picture of a male Mallard sent in by Donald & Val Patterson who visited yesterday. As they put it ‘…Sometimes the more familiar birds are well worth a second look…’ and how right they are, it’s so easy to overlook our Mallard, Chaffinch, Blue Tits etc in favour of more high profile species when they can be just as striking and interesting.