Still we wait, and wait. We have not yet given up hope for osprey eggs hatching at this nest this year, contrary to some newspaper reports.

Whilst egg number one is now ‘overdue’ , tomorrow is still only day 40 for egg two ( within normal range) and eggs 3 and 4 are all still to play for so to speak, as they are not even ‘due’ until tomorrow and Monday at the earliest. Whilst we have some concerns due to the eggs being exposed during incubation, the parents behaviour has been completely normal so we should still remain open-minded.

It is important to remember that this is an aged female bird who has already done more than any other osprey we know of to produce young and help repopulate the area, so really any chicks now are a bonus.

 Our Osprey nest watch, protecting the birds form disturbance 24hrs a day, 7 day a week, would not be possible with  a small army of volunteers who generously contribute time every year. These range from locals who do  couple of hours every week, to full time residential volunteers who contribute 2 months here on the reserve. Two of these wonderful people are leaving us this week, and it seems a good time to say a HUGE THANKYOU to them for all their hard work, patience and perseverance. Julien and Rachel are both going onto to other exciting ecology projects, and we wish the very very best in their conservation careers.

 

 

More Osprey Q and A tomorrow night folks.