Ospreys 2020

I would just love to see Spotted Flycatchers increase in numbers. Long gone are the days when every park and churchyard held pairs. Now you are more likely to find hens teeth
 
bigyetiman said:
I would just love to see Spotted Flycatchers increase in numbers. Long gone are the days when every park and churchyard held pairs. Now you are more likely to find hens teeth
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For me it’s butterfly’s. I remember childhood in London when every Buddleia bush was heaving with butterfly’s. And every Saturday in the summer we were sent out to dads vegetable plot to pick caterpillars off the cabbages and sprouts.
Anyway enough of this rose coloured spectacles stuff. It’s strange that keynote species are returning in record numbers yet the host of less exciting species are in a continual decline.
Talking of Buddleias last year I took the train from Edinburgh to Birmingham. Along the embankments were miles where every second bush was a Buddleia. I hope in August they’re alive with butterfly’s.
But thinking locally I’d love the Sea Eagle back here. One of the folk legends here is the story of the eagle and the baby. The croft where part of the story took place, though ruinous, is still marked on the large scale map (Colbinstoft).
 
The story, Marigold, took place around 1700.
A young couple on Unst were harvesting the oat crop and laid their new born baby in its blankets at the top of the field. As they worked their way down the field a sea eagle swept down and seized the baby wrapped up in its blanket. The couple saw the eagle fly over the water to Fetlar. They persuaded their neighbours to row over to Fetlar landing on a small beach just below the Croft of Colbinstoft. They alerted the Fetlar crofters who knew the eerie was on the cliffs of Busta Pund. They ran to the cliffs above and lowered a 12 year old boy down on a rope. He found the baby still sleeping in the nest next to two young eagles. He took hold of the child and both were pulled back up to the cliff top. Some years later the men of Fetlar went over to Unst to gather peat. The boy who was now a man called to see the family of the girl who was now a teenager. They fell in love and married settling first in Fetlar but then moving to the Croft of Kirkabister on Yell.
There are folk today in Yell who say they are descendants of this couple. Their names were Robert Nicholson and Mary Anderson, both common names in Shetland now. The Croft of Kirkabister is still in existence (and lived in) on Yell and Colbinstoft on Fetlar is now ruinous.
Believe what you will!
 
Three osprey chicks at Glaslyn, the oldest now 9 days old, three eggs laid at Dyfi but the first laid hasn't hatched, three chicks now at Llyn Clywedog. The original female, Delyth, didn't return this year but 5F (now called Seren) who had been such a problem at Glaslyn the past two or three years took over the nest so has at last incubated her eggs to hatching. All three nests have live cameras on Youtube.
 
That's a lovely story Hen-Gen. There is a pub locally called the Eagle and Child, with the signboard showing an eagle carrying off a wrapped child. Wonder if it is referring to the tale. I would imagine there is some element of truth in the tale, most do have a grounding in hard fact.

Several Ospreys have passed through Glaslyn, young birds looking for a home, but they seemed uninterested in Aran, and moved through.
Flounder gate incident at Glaslyn was a scary moment. What a welcome to the world, when a large flounder flaps on top of you.
Osprey UV and his partner on eggs at nest 5A Kielder, when they hatch Mrs G will be a great gran. She already has more grandkids hatching at Kielder, Threave and Roudsea Woods
 
Marigold said:
Has another female turned up at the other Glaslyn nest to catch Aran’s eye?
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No. it was 5F (now Seren) who did that and she is now settled with Dylan and three chicks at Llyn Clywedog. There are chicks or a chick at Llyn Brennig but there's no camera there, just what can be seen from a distance.
 
After watching the masterful way Mrs G (and Aran) parent their chicks it was really striking to see 5F do it for the first time. Mrs G is so confident that she gets so close in with the fish they can quite often go for a bite of it themselves! 5F was initially so cautious she even left the fish behind in order to close her talons and get close enough and then it was like a 'Woah!, how are you supposed to do this?!' kind of moment! Bless her - Quickly getting the hang of it now.
 
Mrs G has let Aran feed the chicks already - he usually has to wait a couple of weeks at least. Also Idris, the new male at Dyfi was feeding the chicks quite early on. The eggs look tiny next to their talons but they're about the same size as a chicken's egg I believe which gives some idea of size!
 
The redoubtable Mrs G is now a great grandmother with 2 chicks hatched in Perthshire, truly a super Osprey
 

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Sad news, the only chick raised at Llyn Brenig this year has been found dead, killed by a wind turbine C4km from the nest site
 
I wasn't suggesting turbines are bad, just an unfortunate accident with an inexperienced bird. There is one satellite tracked osprey that uses turbines as a roost. The first time the tracker showed her stationary over the sea everyone assumed she had drowned, next morning there she was happily on the turbine, oblivious to its turning
 
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