20 June 2022
This will not be a very long posting this morning – . It is a beautiful sunny day here and not nearly as hot, yet, as yesterday. A good day to be out and about.
It is a relief to tell you that Laddie LM12 at the Loch of the Lowes has brought in at least three large fish to Blue NC0 this morning for her and the two surviving osplets. So what was going on? Everyone up at Loch of the Lowes believes it was intruders that kept Laddie busy and not fishing.
Oh, he is up to number 4 this morning!!!!!!! Making up for lost time. My gracious.
We all know what intruders can do to the Ospreys and the nest. I believe that Laddie is at least 10-12 years old. Very experienced but the breeding pairs should not have to contend with the young juveniles (2 years old) returning that have no mate or nest – similar to the chicks on Taiaroa Head when the juveniles arrive in December.
Fish number four!!!!!!!!!!! This is awesome. We can all not worry today. Laddie is out performing himself. Fingers crossed that the intruders move on.
The three chicks were ringed this morning at the Rutland nest just like everyone believed would happen. This is the all the information and images from Rutland. Everyone is already thinking these three girls will be heading to Wales in a couple of years to find Welsh males for mates!
A really nice sized fish was delivered to the three at the ND-LEEF this morning. They are 81, 80, and Little Bit 17 is 76 days old today. First news is that 16 has branched so both 15 and 16 are in the line up for fledging.
One of the older siblings gets the fish first. It is then taken by the other older sibling.
At 09:50:05, Little Bit 17 steals that fish! What a great start to the day.
It is time for me to get ready for some appointments this morning. I will check on all the problem nests later today. We can now breathe easy – for a couple of days – that everyone has been fed at the Loch of the Lowes. Send best wishes for those intruders to move themselves along! I am still working on the list of loses and the wildlife rehab articles. Last night I got up to number 60 on loses. It is all a bit gutting. The last additions were the three osplets that died when their nest collapsed at Patuxent 2. What a tragedy.
Thank you for joining me today. Take care everyone. See you soon!
Thank you to the Friends of the Loch of the Lowes, the Rutland Osprey Project, and the ND-LEEF for their streaming cams and/or FB announcements where I took my screen captures.