It’s been a frantic week on the Dyfi - things are never simple are they!

Who is Dai Dot?

Dai is a male bird that has been around the Dyfi for a number of years. We first spotted him in 2011, but we have seen him regularly in 2012 and in 2013.

We call him Dai Dot as he has two prominent white plumage marks above his beak. Dai sounds like ‘dau’ in Welsh, which means two. So Dai Dot - two dots!

Dai also has characteristic iris spots in his left eye in the four-o-clock position. Dai Dot is not ringed, so we don’t know where he is from, but seeing as he was around in 2011, that would make him at least five years old.

Who is Blue 24?

She is a female osprey born in Rutland in 2010, the same year as her cousin, Glesni. Glesni’s father and Blue 24’s mother are full siblings. She has a blue Darvic ring on her right leg and the number 24.

Blue 24 was actually spotted back as a two year old in 2012 when she spent a large part of the summer in Arlington Reservoir in Sussex. Then last year, she was spotted several times at three main areas: Back at her natal home Rutland, the Glaslyn area in north Wales, and here on the Dyfi.

Here is a video of Blue 24 visiting the Dyfi nest and her cousin Glesni in July last year:
 

What’s happened this week?

On Monday morning we saw our first osprey of the year, Blue 24 was back at the Dyfi. She stayed around all day, was visited by another female (unringed) for an hour or so, and was back on the nest the following morning.

Tuesday morning - rather foggy and cold

At 10:30, having not encountered a male osprey of any description, Blue 24 was off. She headed east and we though to ourselves, how long before she is spotted in Rutland?

True to form, on Wednesday morning, she was there for all to see on the HD Live Streaming. But on the Manton Bay nest in Rutland!!

At Rutland, however, she found yet more females, two of which were competing for the same nest as she was perching on. Blue 24 was swiftly sent packing.

Early on Thursday morning we entertained another visitor on the Dyfi nest - Dai Dot was back!

Dai spent the day relaxing, hopping between the nest and the new larch tree perch, keeping an eye on the new Observatory.

Then, and as if this was not inevitable, guess who returned from her two-day visit to Rutland?  Dai Dot and Blue 24 wasted no time getting to know each other and both stayed around the nest on Thursday evening.

All day Friday, both birds spent the day mating and bonding. Despite Blue 24’s attempts to entice a fish off her new partner however, she was unsuccessful; evidence of our theory that Dai Dot hasn’t bred before.

Seldom do non-breeding male ospreys quickly relinquish their dinner once a female starts nagging. He’ll soon work that out though, once Blue 24 shuts the door on mating activities. It will quickly boil down to the age-old evolutionary equivalent of quid pro quo, food for sex. After all, why should she invest a whole year of her breeding life to a male that could potentially be a poor provider to offspring that contain 50% of her genes?

Where are Monty and Glesni?

Monty is not late. He usually arrives between April 2nd and April 11th - so he is due any minute now!

Glesni was a first-time breeder last year so we have no record of her return dates. Roy Dennis did ring us in the week, however, and explained that many of his ospreys were late, having being caught up in the poor weather over Spain.

What will happen when Monty/Glesni come back?

Blue 24 and Dai Dot’s bond is less than two days old at the moment - very weak. Monty would have no trouble re-claiming his nest back from these two, Glesni too. We saw how determined she was last May in getting her man and nest!

Will we build more nests?

No - these birds are more than capable of building their own, they’ve been doing it for millions of years. A lot longer even than the time our ancestors decided that moving around on two legs was actually not a bad idea. There are a few ospreys in mid Wales these days that stay around for the summer, they’ll know where the best places to build nests are.

What will happen now?

Who knows! The osprey rule book is thrown out the window at this time of year. Birds are competing, grandstanding, displaying, advertising, building, and fighting. As ever though, we’ll keep you up to date on everything that happens. Keep an eye on our Facebook page, our Twitter feed and the Live Streaming for the very latest.

Keep Calm and Look Up - this story ain’t finished yet..