NEST NEWS

Serious nest building

Our ‘osprey watchers’ have been busy recording activity in and around the nest this last week, despite the nest cam having been down for several days. We're pleased to announce that it’s now back up and running. In mid April we had 2 males sporadically maintaining the nest, Blue 496 – the 3 year old from Clywedog and an unringed male - probably the one that built the nest last year. The nest had really suffered during the storms at the beginning of the month and from the beaks of the jackdaws that have been raiding it for their own nests. But a sustained effort over the last week by the unringed male has made it a desirable residence once again. Blue 496 has not been seen (or at least not identified) since before 20th April, leaving a rather lonely looking unringed male fishing, nest building and waiting for his mate.

Some excitement yesterday afternoon (Friday 26th) when a second bird arrived and was observed in the area and briefly on the nest, before heading off in the direction of Llangors. Was it Blue 496 returning for a takeover, another male returning late from migration or just possibly a female? Hopefully we will get some more observations over the weekend to answer these questions.

A question often asked is what happens if his mate doesn’t return? Well, first of all its not too late yet and she could return in the next week and still not be too late to raise chicks but it is now getting late in the season and so there's the possibility she may not have survived the migration. If so, the male will likely remain with us for the summer and there will be another wave of osprey returning to the UK in late May. These are the 2 year olds making their first return migration having spent their first summer in west Africa. Late May is too late to breed, but the birds may form a pair ready for breeding next year. Whatever happens, the nest will likely continue to be used this year and next year, the only question is exactly who will be in residence.