Monty has still not returned home.

9th April

Today was supposed to be a very special day. On the 9th April we were due - and were on track just one month ago - to open the new Dyfi Wildlife Centre. By today Monty and Telyn should have been back with hundreds of visitors crammed into the new centre to see them.

Life is full of surprises. As the sun sets on another day in the Dyfi Valley, Monty has not arrived back yet.

How old is Monty?

He was around the Dyfi in 2008, as a young bird we think, so that would put his year of birth at at least 2006. So, he is at least 14 years old. Hopefully.

Monty and Scraggly in 2009

Is there a chance Monty may still turn up?

Absolutely; but clearly as each day passes the probability of him returning diminish. There are a few 'late' birds out there still to make an appearance - let's hope Monty is one of them.

Monty returns in 2014

New Male

Telyn arrived on 2nd April at 18:43.

Three days later she was joined by a male - he has no leg rings.

Initially Telyn spurned off any advances from this new male, but as time progressed, she started to take to him.

Not interested... initially

Our new male has been nest building, fishing, gifting his food to Telyn, seeing off intruders and... mating. This guy is not new to this.

He's done this before - and probably not just the once. He shows zero evidence that he's a novice; you don't need to be an experienced behavioural ecologist to work this one out. He's been round the block a few times. He also knows this nest and the local environment.

Telyn and her new male - for now - sleep together

Bonding

Just over three days in and our new male is bonding strongly with Telyn. If you didn't know already, you'd swear this was the established male at this Dyfi nest that arrived on the 5th April (no, he definitely isn't Monty).

The new male brings a fish to the nest - and hands it straight to Telyn

He has no leg rings, so nobody knows when he was born. He's probably Scottish. But I think I know who he is - let's call it a hypothesis for now, a hypothesis for another time, another blog.

If (lots of 'ifs' coming up) Monty does not return, and if these two lay eggs, and if they have chick(s) that survive to five weeks old, and if we're out of isolation and we can ring and buccal swab them.... DNA will either prove - or disprove - the hypothesis with 100% accuracy.

And Finally

We're not giving up on Monty, let's give the poor lad at least another week to show up before we even think of giving up on him.

But, for now, our new male deserves a name; we can't keep calling him 'Newboy' for ever.

DOP is now unstaffed over the Easter holiday, I've just re-calibrated the Live Streaming camera settings to hopefully last us to next Tuesday. The audio has finally been fixed after hours and days of strife - thankfully it was a software issue.

Starting in the morning we will have a second moderator on the Live Chat; volunteer Colin has done an amazing job already for the last 11 days, but now he needs some help.

Lastly, I'd like to thank so many of you that have kindly donated to DOP over the last three weeks - it has been our lifeline that has kept us going. We all need the Live Streaming more than ever during these unprecedented times. Diolch.

Mythology tells us that many moons ago a giant lived in these parts. A giant of such stature that he used a local mountain as a chair; he is said to have studied the stars from on top of the 'chair'; it was reputed to bestow either madness or poetic inspiration on whoever spent a night on its summit.

Today we call this mountain Cader Idris - Idris' chair.

Our new male osprey is called Idris.

Idris makes short work of a Sewin (sea trout)