29 June 2024
We were all excited when, on Saturday morning in the UK, beloved Osprey Dad, Louis, showed up at the nest with half a fish. We believed he was over what had caused his poor fishing performance for the entire previous week and was back to being the great fisher that he has been since 2017. Then he didn’t show up again and everyone including the chicks and Dorcha held their breath. Louis did, finally, turn up with another fish.
I am concerned about Louis’s health because his behaviour is different from the norm and there is no clear explanation for it. I am glad that The Woodland Trust is taking advice from Roy Dennis and, I presume, Tim Mackrill, two Osprey experts. I want to say ‘the’ experts. Whatever decision The Woodland Trust takes in the next few days will be to ensure the survival of Louis and Dorcha’s surviving osplets from 2024. We do not need to question what they decide – they are tireless in their caring for this family.
This is the latest information penned by George at The Woodland Trust. Geemeff sent it to us, thanks ‘G’.
Good evening folks. I now have some more detailed information for you. It is a bit of a long read but hopefully will answer many of your questions.
When the initial crisis of Louis being absent emerged during the week we discussed the situation with our raptor advisor and staff from the Roy Dennis Foundation. As you know – we are woodland folk, not osprey experts, so we take advice.
At that point we were expecting to stick to our no-intervention position but we wanted to make sure we had explored all the options.
It emerged however that the timing was perfect for our chicks to potentially go into an already established and well designed programme of translocation that would likely give them a much better chance of survival than they would have if problems continued at Arkaig Nest2.
The Roy Dennis Foundation has a long and illustrious history of practical conservation work, particularly with raptors including ospreys. They were behind the translocation of ospreys to both Rutland and Poole, amongst many other places. They are behind the sea eagle introduction in the Isle of Wight.
They are currently in the second year of a five year arrangement with partners in Spain to translocate ospreys to the Valencia region. They took 12 Scottish osprey chicks last year and will take another 12 this year. This is all done under Government licence to the highest standards of best practice. International translocations and reintroductions are all conducted under the auspices of the IUCN who are the world authority on these matters.
What was especially timely given our emerging crisis is that they are due to take these chicks from various nests in the coming week or so. These chicks will be kept and fed at a special aviary in Inverness before being flown to Spain.
So, we were greatly re-assured that removing the chicks to this programme was an option. With the weekend looming we decided to get the licence to do that on Friday so we could proceed that way if we needed to.
We did however want to give Louis more time to return in case there was an opportunity to keep the chicks at Arkaig with a good prospect of survival. That is why they were fed on Friday – to give a bit more time to see if Louis would come back.
As you know, he did indeed rock up this morning with a bit of fish. Lewis was actually at the tree preparing to climb up to hand feed again when this happened.
So this morning we hoped things would be quickly back to normal again and the translocation option was no longer going to be required. But then Louis did not appear again with any more fish, and Dorcha seems to have tried too with no success.
So over the period of today we have been in constant discussion that ranged from no more intervention to removing both chicks – as time progressed.
We were advised that the chicks would likely be fine until the morning. Until a little while ago we were considering having them taken out in the morning.
After further discussion though, the plan now is that they will be fed again tomorrow morning and lots of fish left in the nest. Bad weather is likely and we want them fuelled up to deal with it. Roy and his team feel we should give a bit more time to see how Louis performs but that there is potential to extract both chicks on Monday should we feel that is the best way to go. We will take that decision in close consultation with Roy and his team.
Louis seems to have arrived with something while I have been writing this – which is great but does not change the position substantively.
So that is where we are at and that is how we have got here. You will appreciate that we have had to concentrate on communications with our expert advisors rather than the audience here. I know that has been frustrating for you but it could not be avoided.
If some of you don’t like the decisions we have taken or will take – it is unfortunate. We have to be guided by best advice from acknowledged experts in the field. I hope though that everyone will respect the consideration we have given along these various steps to do the right thing.
If our birds do end up going to Spain I think it is something we should be proud of – helping expand the range of the osprey and so making the species more resilient in the longrun.
Keep in mind that Scotland currently has sea eagles, beavers and red kites in our landscape thanks to other nations gifting us animals to be translocated in. Whether our two young birds go into the programme or not – it is great that Scotland is helping another nation in this way.
I hope the late fish has eased everyone’s stress levels and that you are re-assured that another feed is scheduled tomorrow morning. Again we are playing a waiting game to see how things pan out, while giving the chicks enough food to hold them for now.
We will doubtless have more to tell tomorrow!
Some images of that last delivery. Louis flew in and out quickly at 1954. That was a huge span of time between deliveries. It is concerning. Please send this nest your most positive wishes and some really good energy to Louis.
Thank you to Geemeff, George and The Woodland Trust, and The Woodland Trust for the streaming cam where I took my screen captures.
