Glaslyn Ospreys

Marigold

Marigold

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Here's a link to the live stream of the Glaslyn Ospreys, near Porthmadoc in Snowdonia.

http://www.glaslynwildlife.co.uk/live/?utm_source=osp17&utm_medium=email

They've been nesting on this wild marshland for several years now. The RSPB manage the area and you can sit in a hide and see them on the nest with a telescope. But I think the webcam is better because you can pop on at any time and see what's happening, and of course, there are always eyes watching the nest to protect them from poachers or vandals. Yesterday at teatime I saw one of the birds arrive with a large fish and sit on the edge of the nest and eat it. Not so much action yet as the eggs haven't been laid, but put the link on your home page and click on it at coffee times, things will get more lively pretty soon I expect.
Their original nest was in a tree, which blew down one winter a few years ago, so the RSPB built the present five-star accommodation for them, including strong wire fixings and a very convenient perch across the middle. Nobody knew if they would actually return and use it, but to everyone's relief they did, and have nested every year since.
 
That looks like a nest built from serious tree branches for some kind of dinosaur! Any idea what its diameter is Marigold?
 
The News section on the site (top of the page) has interesting info on the history of the birds http://www.glaslynwildlife.co.uk/2017/03/the-traeth-glaslyn-nest-blue-5f-and-whe...
It looks as if the osprey who is there at the moment is the female, Mrs G, waiting for her mate to return from migration. Apparently he got involved in a threesome last year, with another female who turned up, but couldn't manage to support her as well as Mrs G, so her eggs were eaten by crows when she had to leave the second nest to fish for herself. Interesting discussion about all this.
We saw her eating another huge fish yesterday afternoon. I felt sorry for the fish as it was still alive but being torn steadily to pieces from the head downwards.
The reserve is now run by unpaid volunteers from a small local charity, hence the appeal for donations.
 
She came back with a new stick for the nest - best ever slow TV!
There's a steam train hooting somewhere near.

... and its just switched camera to a second nest and bird. (4:25pm) That's no chicken! :)

Great find Marigold!
 
The steam train is the newly-restored Welsh Highland Railway which runs between Porthmadoc and Caernarvon. We have booked a bungalow in Beddgelert in June, where the trains run just the other side of the valley, across the stream which runs along the edge of the garden. This is near to the osprey reserve, perfect for husband, who used to be a bird ringer and is also a train nerd.
 
The female, Mrs G, was actually the first one to return and her long-awaited mate, Aran, finally arrived a few weeks ago. They've now laid 3 eggs, and Aran seems to be doing most of the incubation,- despite having a girlfriend on another nest, which he's trying to support as well. This happened last year, but as he couldn't manage to feed both females, the other bird's eggs were eaten by crows when she was off the nest.
They don't seem to spend so much time together on the nest area ATM, but if you can catch sight of them it's easy to tell the difference, as Aran is considerably smaller and has a different plumage pattern - more white around the head and neck. I think the incubation period is quite long for ospreys, so maybe the hatch will happen in time for my visit to the area at the start of June. It would be good to actually see for myself. They started brooding as soon as the first egg was laid, so there's going to be a difference of 4-6 days between the oldest and youngest chick, assuming all hatch. I suppose that, with a long-lived species that doesn't reach maturity until 3-4 years, the aim is to raise at least one chick per year if possible - the oldest one appropriates most of the food, if there's not enough to go around for any other chicks, but if this chick dies, the others may succeed. Sort of 'heir and a spare' situation. But, judging by the enormous fish I've seen the adults eating on the nest, there seems to be plenty available.
 
Apparently the incubation period is 35 -40 days Marigold (nearly called you Fuchsia!)
If you click on the "home" tab at the top of the screen and then scroll right down you can see the info they've put on Facebook. You need to see the size of the Garfish that Aran caught! They've put a post up that the reserve was flooded so closed to visitors today - must have had a lot of rain in the area.

The Osprey's at Rutland Water have had two chicks hatch but one has since died - possibly because mum accidentally stepped on it. There are two more eggs to hatch there any time now.
 
Looks like its Aran on the nest tonight then from your description Marigold. He got up briefly to turn and arrange the eggs with feet clenched into tight balls, presumably to minimise the chance of those talons doing any damage. Fantastic!
 
The talons/feet are a problem. The Rutland nest lost one of the chicks overnight they think because mum trod on it. The third of the four has hatched though so they're back to two chicks. Difficult to see as the male had brought more sticks to the nest.

http://www.ospreys.org.uk/webcam/

I'm not getting anything done; watching three Osprey nests and the Peregrine Falcons chicks on Chichester cathedral ...
 
I agree - plus a friend of mine has a camera on a bluetit nest on her balcony - running shots of little gaping beaks and harassed parents!
The Glaslyn Osprey FB page has some nice bits of video, and also posted a pic of the floods which closed the site yesterday.
 
Lots of activity at Glaslyn last night according to the website. Intruders at Mrs G's nest, and Aran was away incubating the eggs at the other nest! Mrs G seems to be sitting fairly happily this morning.
 
Seems quieter there today. One bird 3J is a Rutland female OH thinks the other intruder may be a Loch Garten bird. Aran will have his work cut out trying to supply two nests.
 
Rutland have lost the fourth chick :( but they still have two really healthy chicks.
Aran was incubating Mrs G's eggs for a while yesterday evening.
 
Power cut at Glaslyn this morning. So no live streaming until an engineer turns up t reactivate the streaming. But Aran is incubating Mrs G's eggs
 
Back on-line, Mrs G is back on the eggs.

Have a look at this for some amazing footage http://www.ospreys.org.uk/category/osprey-team-blog/

Told you I spend too much time watching ...
 
So does the OH and she said look up the RSPB Loch Garten blog poor EJ, lets all root for her. Lots of drama in the Osprey world this year, usually I just the odd tale of young hatching from OH size of fish brought to nest etc. This year I am in a soap opera with these birds
 
Just had a look - that's so sad BYM but as the Blog says, they're wild birds and intervention can have unforeseen effects. If the nest wasn't fitted with a web cam, and I understand there are many that aren't, we'd have no idea what was happening. Seems that the distance to nearest fishing and potentially muddied water is also a contributory factor. At least a chick has hatched successfully at the Dyfi project.
 
Absolutely, its a hard life out there and for every successful nest many more fail, due to many factors, weather, sheer bad luck, inexperience, lack of food. The only really hard one to take is humans causing the nest to fail.
We had a good evening after OH got home we went to the Ashdown Forest and watched Nightjars, amazing birds at one point we had a bird flying round our heads and two more calling nearby.
 
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