Glaslyn osprey diary

He's off...

Emyr Evans — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 18:41:00 GMT

Our first osprey has fledged, 16.22 this afternoon. It's the oldest of the three that had the longest wing span (at ringing) and the middle in weight - 1390g. This bird is 49 days old and is very early making its maiden flight. The ring is YD and despite thinking that we had three females this year, most observers in recent days have sided with two females and YD being a male. Nobody will really know of course until YD comes back in a few years time hopefully to breed for him/her self.

The first flight came 105 years after the Wright brothers' maiden flight, climbed to a similar altitude of 10 feet and lasted three seconds longer that Orville's attempt (YD - 15 seconds)

It just goes to show that you cannot predict nature, not one member of staff, volunteers or visitors guessed it would be this early when our first chick took to the sky. If you live within travelling distance (whatever that means!) try and come down over the weekend - it could be you that sees one of the other chicks fledge next.

Here's that magical moment when YD took to the air for the first time

One down, two to go...

Osprey 3 - Clear take off...

Emyr Evans — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 07:44:00 GMT

We're getting close now, very close. Even though many of us have been watching these ospreys for years, it's still a little strange to see three such large chicks in one nest at the same time. As ever at this stage, there is much friendly debate as to the day the first chick is going to fledge - opinions vary from as early as this Saturday through to next Wednesday. A lot of serious wing flapping going on at the moment and the occasional helicopter flight as I call them, actually being airborne for a few seconds hovering perilously over the nest; this can't be an easy skill to master in the strong winds we've had of late. It's incredible to see the live images of the chicks as they do this, they constantly micro adjust their position in the air by moving different, and sometimes individual, feathers. They are continiously changing the pitch of their streamlined bodies in relation to differing wind conditions just like a large aircraft would by using rudder, flaps and ailerons but in a much more elegant way of course! We sometimes forget how masterful ospreys are at aerial manoeuvring, this photograph shows our male osprey returning to the nest a few days ago only to find an intruder near by. The image is not upside-down!

Those that have been following our live swallow-cam at the visitor centre will be pleased to know that we, or should I say they, now have five hungry little mouths to feed. Brilliant to see these on a 46" plasma screen!

For the Welsh speakers/learners blogging in, the whole of the BBC's Galwad Cynnar radio program will be live from the Glaslyn Osprey Project this Saturday 5, July from 06.30 to 08.00 on Radio Cymru. This will coincide with our second community weekend of the season - everybody welcome as usual, over 2,500 people visited during the last event. (see earlier blog for some more details)

Finally, for those of you that visit, please be aware that we are in the middle of some construction changes at the moment and in the next few days the entrance/exit gate will change to a newer site around 70 metres away (towards Porthmadog). As soon as we have our first chick fledge, I'll let you know..

The weathered three..

Emyr Evans — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 07:32:00 GMT

Well, as I write this I'm looking out of the window and apart from everything being green, one would be forgiven for thinking that we are in the middle of winter. It's cold, pouring down with rain, and blowing a gale - not bad for the last week in June! The good news however is that our three maturing ospreys are making excellent progress staying well inside the recess of the nest sheltering from the worst of the weather; it may not give us the best opportunity to view them from the hide but at least with our fantastic camera systems we can watch their every move from the warmth of the visitor centre.

Rainbow trout seems to be fish of the day at the moment. Despite the rough weather, our adult male seems to bring a steady supply of fish in to the nest - obviously his fishing experience over the years puts him in good stead to deal with adverse weather, both in Wales and in Africa of course. He's ten years old this month in fact - many happy returns old chap!

For those of you that visit regularly we have seen a lot of other camera action this week. The swallows that we watch live on the swallow-cam (they are actually nesting in the osprey hide!) are due to be parents again in the next few days, they have five eggs; and yesterday we counted 27 little birds on the live river cam we have with the two feeders - mostly blue/great tits and goldfinches and our insistent greater spotted woodpecker. A wonderful time to visit if you are within travelling distance, bring a picnic - and an umbrella..

A Ringing success..

Emyr Evans — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 11:26:00 GMT

It's that time of year again when we ring our osprey chicks. On Friday afternoon at 4pm all three chicks were successfully ringed with a BTO (British Trust for Ornithology) metal ring placed on the left leg and a white plastic ring on the right leg.

These plastic rings are for identification purposes, hopefully when these ospreys return to the UK to breed for themselves in three or four years, we'll be able to ID them in the field with a powerful telescope.

The metal BTO rings are placed on birds for recoveries, that is, injured or dead birds could be reported to the BTO giving a time, date and location.

Of the 2,000 or so ospreys that have been ringed in the UK since the 1960s, around 10% of these have been reported back to the BTO; some of these have been found in rather exotic locations such as Iceland and the Cape Verde Islands, one ring was even found in the stomach of a crocodile a few years back!

Apart from ringing the ospreys, we also measure their wing lengths and weigh them. These are their weights:

YC - 1230 grammes
YD - 1390 grammes
YE - 1547 grammes

Going by their weights and 'feel' of the legs, we think we have a single gender threesome this year - probably all females, it is very difficult to know for sure however. Very strong winds today - gusting to 70mph but the birds seem fine sheltering as they do in the recess of the nest protected from the worst of the winds.

Four weeks old today

Emyr Evans — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 18:36:00 GMT

Doesn't time fly (excuse the pun!), our oldest chick is four weeks old today - happy birthday. They are really looking like ospreys now having progressed through the reptilian looking stage and staff, volunteers and visitors alike are attempting to work out whether we have a combination of boys and girls or whether they are all the same sex. Generally the whiter the bird the more likely it is to be male and conversely darker brown birds are typically female.

Here's the happy birthday girl/boy...

We'll have a better chance of determining their gender in a little over a week when we ring the chicks. We also weigh and measure them during this time which gives us a better idea, but more on this in the next blog or two.

Fishing forays become more frequent now - up to six fish a day. Usually a combination of mullet, trout, salmon and the odd coarse fish - today salmon seemed to be the fish of the day.

A big thank you to all of you out there that support us by visiting, reading and leaving messages on the blog, keep those thought coming in.