First up, Louis has landed on the Loch Arkaig Nest – no joke. He touched down at 18:14pm on 11 April to begin the 2021 season at Loch Arkaig. No more worries about the intruder bird (we hope) that was making itself comfortable. Let us all hope that Alia is right behind. What a relief! There were cheers around the world, literally. And tears of great joy rolling down hundreds of eyes.
Over at the Loch of the Lowes, Blue NC0 now called Nessie – has laid her and Laddie’s first egg for the 2021 season. And this is a huge relief just like the arrival of Louis. How grand. It will be wonderful to see little ones on this nest. Note: Laddie and NC0 raised one chick in the 2020 season.
At the Foulshaw Moss Nest, Blue 35, who arrived back on 26 March, has laid her first egg in the snow! Her mate is White YW. Their nest is in a bog in Cumbria. Fantastic! The nest bowl is very deep. We might get a glimpse of the egg during an incubation exchange but, for now, it is nice and cosy in this wintery weather.
And the very first sighting of Blue 222 born on Kielder Nest 1A in 2018 was on 8 April in Aberdeenshire! I mean how wonderful is this. The migration is difficult, especially for just fledged ospreys. To have one survive and to see it catching a huge fish is marvellous. The image was taken by Rob MacDonald and posted on the Loch Arkaig FB page. I hope he does not mind my using you to tell you of this wondrous event. Imagine from the fall of 2018 to now – not knowing anything about the survival of this bird and here she is! Splendid.
There she is with a gorgeous fish she has caught – big enough she has to use both talons. Her name is Binkey after Binkey Burn, a tributary of the Cranecleugh Burn that flows into the Kielder.
Over at the Glaslyn, Aran comes in and gives Mrs G a break to eat. Mrs G has been eating for more than an hour! We also get a glimpse of the egg in the exchange of incubation duties!
I wish the news of the weather down in Dunedin, Florida were better. The Achieva Osprey nest is soaked to its core.
I am happy to report that two fish did arrive on the nest during breaks in the weather. Tiny Tot ate from 7:27:45-7:48 and then again from 10:32:03 to 10:44:44. Tiny Tot had dropped the crop that he went to sleep with on the 10th of April. It is unclear if he had any of the fish that was delivered right before the skies opened to rain last night. He has not had a crop from the amount of food he has eaten but he has eaten and that is a good thing!
There is Tiny with his juvenile plumage coming in being fed by Diane.
It is nearly 3:30pm nest time in Florida. The water is still dripping off the birds but it looks like there is a lull in the weather. There is rain but no thunderstorms. From the weather report that heavy rain and thunderstorms will begin in about half an hour and continue past 7pm. Let us hope that Jack can sneak in a fish. It is 19 degrees going up to 23 Celsius. The weather for Monday thru Wednesday is better. Hoping to get Tiny Tot some more crops then before the storms start again next weekend.
Thank you for joining me today. I hope that the good news will rub off on Tiny Tot’s nest with the arrival of a big fish during a break. Have a good rest of the weekend everyone. Take care.
Thanks to the following for their streaming cams or their FB postings: Woodland Trust Loch Arkaig, Post Code Lottery, Friends of Loch Arkaig FB Page, Achieva Credit Union, Cumbria Wildlife Trust, Bywyd Gwyllt Wildlife Trust, and Friends of Loch of the Lowes and Scottish Wildlife Trust.