Saturday in Bird World

5 April 2025

Hello Everyone!

Today’s blog is going to be short. It was a bit of a chill wind on the Canadian Prairies but the sun was shining and it was a good day to be out clearing up some of the mess that winter left. UK Ospreys are returning. Maya and Blue 33 have an egg (or will it be eggs by the time you read this?) in their nest. We are waiting on the arrival of Aran at Glaslyn and I am not going to panic because he has been known to return during the first half of April – the days have varied. Here they are according to UKOsprey Info Archives:

12/04, 07/04, 05/04, 01/04, 30/04, 29/03, 10/04, 03/04, 30/03 

I will not panic until the 12th! Aran has been breeding at Glaslyn, first with Mrs G and then Elen for nine years.

I adore Aran. We all felt for him and Mrs G when he was injured in a skirmish with Aeron Z2 a couple of years ago and him and Mrs G lost their chicks because of the weather, his injury, and no food for the wee ones. Here is his profile from the Glaslyn website. He has an enviable record in producing ospreys to fledge!

Unringed male, arrived at Glaslyn on 30^th April 2015. Given the name Aran because when he first arrived, looking from the Visitor Centre, he kept flying in the direction Nantmor and appeared to be flying towards Yr Aran, the mountain peak south of Snowdon. It was also an easy name for to pronounce for non-Welsh speakers.

Aran arrived at the time we would expect to see prospecting two or three-year old ospreys. His behaviour during his first breeding year suggested that he was not an experienced male and his plumage was not what we would expect from a more mature male. Matings were less frequent than we had seen with the old pairing and he appeared rather unsure of how to behave when left alone with the young chicks. For instance, when the chicks were around two weeks old, he made no attempt to feed them when Mrs G was absent for several hours chasing away intruding ospreys, even though they were food soliciting for the fish he had bought to the nest. He is a great provider of fish however, bringing back a large variety of marine species, such as garfish, flounder and sea bass, as well as trout and mullet. He proved to be more experienced in the mating stakes during his second breeding year, as he was also spotted mating with Blue 5F. In June 2016 he demonstrated that he was more confident with the chicks, by feeding them himself for the first time.

During a raging storm on the evening of 20 May 2021, Aran left the nest to fish for his growing family. We did not see him again until the middle of the following afternoon, when the storm was finally calming down. Aran did not have a fish and it was clear from his demeanour that something was not right. Mrs G had fed the remaining scraps of the previous days fish to the chicks during the morning and the very young chicks needed feeding urgently. We realised that Aran had sustained an injury to his right wing and he was clearly fatigued.

After seeking expert advice, we decided to provide supplementary fish near to the nest, in an attempt to give the young family a chance of survival. Sadly, our efforts were not successful and the three chicks died over the course of the following few days. However, the fish we provided gave Aran the opportunity to rest and recover and within two weeks he was catching small fish and another two weeks later he was able to catch reasonably sized fish once again. It was too late in the season for a second breeding attempt, but Aran and Mrs G remained together defending their nest from intruding ospreys. By the end of the season, we were confident that Aran had made a full recovery.

Although he was later returning in Spring 2022 compared to more recent years, he arrived back on the Glaslyn nest on 10 April and soon was re-joined by Mrs G for another successful breeding season.

Number of chicks produced

26 hatched
22 fledged

Achieva had its wonderful little hatch for experienced dad Jack and new mate, Jill, on Thursday. All eyes are now on the Hellgate Canyon nest of Iris and Finniegan as we are in the window of our Queen’s arrival.

I want to know what is going on at Loch of the Lowes. We know that Blue NC0 has lost her Darvic ring. There seem to be some that have forgotten that. Blue NC0 has returned and was looking for a mate as LM12 Laddie died last breeding season in 2024. The Woodland Trust seems to think a new couple is in the nest – is this true? https://youtu.be/ph0U6NakMLk?

The year for Stella and her new mate has been disappointing at the UFlorida-Gainesville. Talon went MIA in 2024 leaving Stella in charge of the nest and trying to fledge osplets in difficult circumstances. Of the three, only one fledged. Now that nest is falling apart – indeed, it is good to remember that when the university put up new lights they changed the nest and everything went sideways. The camera is not conducive to observing the osplets and well, here is an opportunity to improve the whole situation if they want to do so.

This is the most feeble disappointing nest I have ever seen! Isn’t there an engineering department at this big university to pitch in and help our birds?

Geemeff sends their daily posting for The Woodland Trust:

Woodland Trust Daily summary for Loch Arkaig

Business as usual on Nest Two today – the day started with Louis skydancing in the dark while Dorcha waited on the nest, and continued with several mating encounters and a single fish which did a flyby then travelled on and off the nest a few times, before ending in a blaze of colour at sunset as the pair left for the night. The fish count rose to a whopping two fish, the counting rota has been drawn up but it’s not too late to sign up to volunteer. In other news, Louis is such a star that George WTS’s press release was published in over 200 media outlets, and a Buzzard visited Nest One twice, or possibly two Buzzards visited Nest One once each! The weather was warm and dry with both the loch and the sky a glorious blue, although it was a little windy.

Night cam switches on (day cam): 

Nest One 21.13.24 (05.35.54); Nest Two 21.14.28 (05.50.16)

Today’s videos:

https://youtu.be/zsQ0QZKkaWE  N2 Skydancing in the dark 05.48.12

https://youtu.be/gwd9JbMMdvo N1 A Buzzard, possibly back for another visit, steals a stick 08.54.15

https://youtu.be/uMsV5FfftUM N1 The Buzzard returns soon after the first visit 09.13.11

https://youtu.be/Bk9ZbInXEm0 N2 Louis does a fishy flypast before landing 15.25.44 (super slo-mo repeat)

https://youtu.be/q0gh-tkhdkg N2 Mating, fish, arrivals & departures: Dorcha & Louis end the day 19.41.49

Bonus video – a short gallop through last year’s Season Eight:

Blast from the past, this day in previous years:

https://youtu.be/qWWDUb_DC14  N1 A pair of Coal Tits check for nesting material 2022

https://youtu.be/5vKz_gfgz6E N2 Louis delivers a fish but no one’s home yet 2023

https://youtu.be/k8lP42KRt_Q N2 Oh dear, As fast as Louis brings moss, the wind takes it away 2023

https://youtu.be/f–JW877XlM N1:The one-ring Stranger makes a quick touchdown 2024 (Slo-mo repeat with zoom) 

https://youtu.be/LwifGVTKdqM N1 Prince visits briefly 2024 (zoom)

https://youtu.be/t24Vr9A4BSE  N2 Great Tit is startled by Dorcha 2024 (Slo-mo repeat with zoom)

https://youtu.be/Kg_R5p03Gfs N2 Louis brings an unsuitable stick 2024

Come and join the friendly community at Woodland Trust’s Osprey forum, it’s fun, free and everyone’s welcome:

https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/osprey-cam

At Goitzsche Wildnis – the happy couple, Zeus and Fjona are doing well. JC writes on Friday: ” I guess you’ve noticed how the nest has changed in the few days since Fjona arrived. Zeus had done and still does the heavy lifting (sticks and soft material everywhere) but she has given it shape by rearranging sticks and branches, filling holes and flattening the nest bed. She hardly leaves it, lest the crows do their thing. And Zeus thanks her with some beautiful fish for his companion.”

Rutland Manton Bay: Maya and Blue 33 have their second egg on Saturday.

Heidi’s Osprey News:

4/5 –  Brevard County (Florida): Egg 3 hatched at approximately 02:00. The three babies all hatched within roughly 60 hours… wow!.  

Skipping away from ospreys for a minute, Diamond and Xavier show up at the scrape in Orange Falcon. Cam is a welcome sight! They have been in and out for some time, but it is always wonderful to see them. https://youtu.be/_rxjmTlNZV8?

San Jose Falcon Cam: Enfluffing! https://youtu.be/CJ_zlQAF3tw?

‘J’ sent this image from nature chat of Spilve and Grislis and their two Golden Eagle eggs in Latvia. Fingers crossed.

Thank you for being with us today. Please take care. Go outside. Turn off the news for a few days. Find the tranquility that nature offers us – a place to escape and let the days worries slide off. And if you are ‘liking’ the blog, then please hit the ‘like’ button. All it does is help us get higher in the searches and that way more people can find Bird World and fall in love with our feathered friends like we have. Thank you.

Hugo Yugo wishes everyone a good sleep.

See you soon!

Thank you to the following for their notes, posts, comments, images, videos, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: ‘Geemeff, Heidi, J’, Bywyd Gwylld Glaslyn, Laurie Cody and the UFlorida-Gainesville Extension, Geemeff and The Woodland Trust, J Castyner and Goitzsche Wildnis, The Falcon Cam Project, Nature chat and LDF, Breward County Ospreys, SK Hideaways