2012

Both ospreys returned to their Dyfi nest in 2012. Nora was very early, arriving on March 24. Monty was back nine days later on April 2nd - his earliest arrival to date.

March

Nora arrives in glorious March sunshine on March 24th, extremely early and looking in great condition

April

Monty (right) and Nora back on their Dyfi nest - April 2nd, 2012.

Both birds engaged in nest building and pair bonding. We hopeed to have eggs sometime from April 17th onwards..

Nora laid her first egg on April 18th at 19.06 - Info here

A second egg was laid April 21st and a third April 24th. More info here

May

Both Nora and Monty incubated all three eggs without fail - approximately 80% and 20% each respectively. Despite the weather being unseasonably cold and wet, we expected the first chick to make her/his appearance around May 26th.

Monty incubating this year's eggs in the rain

During the five and a half week incubation period, a dedicated team of staff and volunteers guarded the nest and eggs from disturbance and egg collectors 24hrs a day. 

All of the chicks hatched on May 28th, 29th and 31st. Unfortunately, the first chick (right) died at three days old after a prolonged bout of rain.  (UPDATE - That's Ceulan on the left)

June

June brought the worst summer storm on record, devastating parts of mid, west Wales. On June 9th, the youngest chick succumbed to the storm but thankfully, and after a brief intervention to feed it, the remaining chick survived the storm.

The young chick was named Ceulan after a local river and he thankfully survived the worst summer in terms of rain in over 100 years, since records began.

Ceulan - 38 days old and he is yet to exerience a whole day without rain

July

The poor weather continued into July, but Ceulan got stronger as each day passed. On July 13th we ringed and tagged Ceulan at the age of 45 days old and he successfully fledged eight days later on July 21st. Ceulan is a boy.

At 09:29 on July 21st, at 53 days and three hours old, Ceulan took his first ever flight

In July we also recorded the 50th intruder osprey of the year - there are more ospreys every year looking around the Dyfi for nest sites and mates. We have positively sighted four distinct individuals, two Scottish birds and two Rutland birds. The image below is Rutland Blue 12, born in 2010. She has been sighted on the Dyfi at various times throughout the season - will she come back in 2013?

Ceulan and Blue 12 are related, they're cousins

Update: At the end of August, another osprey, a male, had been sighted on the nest. This bird, 'Dai Dot' was around from at least June onwards, as well as for some of 2011. Will he come back in 2013?

Dai Dot - is he looking for a nest and mate like Monty was in 2008 to 2011 on the Dyfi

Young ospreys have orange eyes so Ceulan bears an uncanny resemblance to his father Monty (left)

August

Ceulan continued to flourish and grow stronger and 16 days after he fledged, Nora started her long migration south.

Nora leaves her favourite Dyfi perch for the last time and starts her migration on August 7th. She stayed 136 days on the Dyfi in all in 2012.

September

Ceulan left for the biggest journey of his short life on Monday, September 3rd at 09:26 - he was 97 days old when he went, around average for Welsh ospreys.

Ceulan aged 96 days - photographed the day before he migrated and left Wales for the first time

Monty stayed around for another two days, spending much of that time looking around for his son, fish in talon. Little did he know that by the time he finally started his migration on Wednesday, September 5th, Ceulan was almost a thousand miles away in Portgal.

Monty looking around for his son on one of his favourite, late season perches

Monty and Nora do not have trackers, but Ceulan does. You can follow his progress on Google Earth (help here) and on his blog on this website.

Timescale of key events - 2011 & 2012

The following table gives the transmission schedule for Ceulan's tracker throughout the year