MID-SUMMER MOVEMENTS
With the holiday season upon us it was inevitable that the frequency of nest monitoring by trained Watchers might reduce – however 6-10 hours/day is still being achieved with a video playback facility meaning that no nest activity is lost or goes unrecorded. Both the towpath viewing point and the nest camera remain in operation and will do so until the birds depart for Africa around the end of August.
During the second half of July there have again been periods when the local territorial pair apparently leave the nest for up to 40 hours. However they normally return from these within a minute of each other suggesting at least one has stayed within sight of the nest. Otherwise visits are off and on during daylight hours with chores such as bringing in sticks and soft lining material continuing. Less theft of nest materials by other species now occurs as they complete their breeding.
Resident male still putting a lot of effort into building and maintaining the nest 29 July 24
Nest defence by ‘our’ birds indicate that visiting ospreys continue to move through the valley, but the intruder not identified unless it lands on the nest. Over this period at least one other unringed osprey has visited, and a previous visitor to Gilestone was photographed further down the Usk at Llanellen on 28 July. This bird, 2H4 a 2-yr old female from Rutland Water, featured in our last report, is probably scoping the Usk Valley for a future breeding site as she is not yet of breeding age.
Blue 2H4 revisits Gilestone on 25 July 24
She is related to the current Clywedog breeding female, the source of several other visitors to Gilestone this year. Since late-March there have now been 32 visits from 8-10 different ospreys at Talybont with those closest to the nest bringing stout defence by the resident pair.
Also on 28 July a local photographer took images of an unringed male osprey fishing Llangorse Lake. At 7.15pm it caught a small fish. At 7.32pm nestcam watchers noted the male arrive onto the nest with a 15-cm (6 inch) complete fish, the female dropping in seconds later. There followed a brief tug-of-war with the fish before he relinquished what turned out to be a perch. She then took off to eat it in peace. While other coarse fish likely to be from Llangorse have been noted, this is the first occasion that timed evidence proves the link between Llangorse and the nest.
Osprey fishing at Llangorse Lake (thanks to Peter Seaman for the images)