It’s been another busy fish delivery day with three Brown Trout and one Rainbow Trout in so far. The latest fish was tiny, what we call a ‘5 minute fish’ as that’s how long it takes to eat. Blue 44 has certainly found his voice shouting at dad for more fish when he’s hungry. He’s also been taking more short flights today but rarely lasting more than 30 seconds.

On that note the latest batch of satellite tacking data from Blue 44 is now available on the SWT website and is providing fascinating insights into his movements. You can see the map of his journeys so far since fledging: but you’ll need to zoom in on the Blue markers using the + button on the left.

What the data shows are lots of short flights to areas close to the nest- just as you would expect for a bird at this age. He seems to be developing favourite trees and destinations (some coordinates keep reoccurring) as well as returning to the nest frequently. The furthest he has been is about half a mile, and he seems to be content to practice his flying skills in these short hops for now, but this will soon change as he gains more confidence.

I promised the footage of our chick getting a telling off from his mum after being AWOL for four days, I’m sorry it’s taken so long, only two people here can download videos and neither has been here. You’ll see how she shouts, pecks and flaps her wings at him, it’s not a surprise he didn’t budge for at least a day afterwards.

Unusually, at the moment, both adults are sitting in the same tree the male just above the female on what we affectionately call the ‘boingy branch’ as when he lands on it, it goes boing! The male gave us a treat earlier by fishing right in front of the hide and catching the 5 minute fish, he was so quick we almost missed it. We’re very lucky that so many of our visitors share their photos with us and here’s one from Neil Simpson of our male landing on the boingy branch.

 I’m also delighted to say we’ve seen the Great Crested Grebe chick from the lilypad nest over the last couple of days. It’s almost adult size now and is diving by itself but it’s a way off getting its adult plumage. Unfortunately it looks like its sibling hasn’t survived. However we couldn’t believe our eyes this afternoon when another Grebe pair appeared with three chicks which must only be about two weeks only. This is really exciting and great news for the Grebes in the area who’ve had a tough time this year as they lost their earlier nests in the heavy rain. Mary Cowen kindly sent us her pic of our Lilypad pair feeding their chick a few weeks ago, I can’t believe how much its grown since then.

Lindsey