Both our ospreys continue to incubate their two eggs, despite there now being no chance they will hatch. The poor parents do not have access to an accurate calendar like us though, and do not yet realise this , so they keep on patiently incubating , showing the legendary osprey  parental attentiveness.  They will give up incubating when so much time has elapsed that they realise its now impossible, or if the eggs start to turn rotten and they can smell this, realising they are not viable they will give up.

News of Blue YD: On advice from Roy Dennis, who agreed with us that the bird was doing so well, it seemed unlikely he came unstuck, we contacted the tag manufacturer. Here is  the information we’ve just received from Microwave Telemetry Inc USA:

” We looked at the data you sent. Unfortunately we could not see anything in the data to explain why you’ve stopped hearing from this PTT [ Tagged bird]. The PTT appeared to be operating normally; it was charging  and showing activity— we saw no indication of mortality or battery issues in the data.  Whatever happened must have happened after the last data packet was sent. We think the fact that data stopped coming in at the time the PTT would have changed duty cycle season is just a coincidence.”

It is interesting to note that the bird was doing well up until the last transmission and there was no information in the data to indicate he was struggling, slowing down etc.

So this leaves us with two possibilities: that something sudden and catastrophic has happened to our bird and his tag at the same time  ( e.g. being shot down or caught and the tag destroyed by a person), or that the tag has simply reached its maximum life and ceased working. Talk about timing!!!!!!! It is so frustrating to know that Blue YD was only the second young osprey that has been tracked back to the UK with this method, and now so close to home, we loose track of him!

However, if our instincts are right, and he is still out there , with so many keen birders and osprey watchers all over the UK on alert from him, we may just get a sighting-fingers crossed!

 

Ranger Emma