Today we switch the live pictures and chat off for another season.

But, for the first time in 13 seasons, this September we don't actually close for the winter.... Cors Dyfi Reserve and the Dyfi Wildlife Centre will remain open... until Christmas.

Opening Hours

Wednesday - Sundays inclusive, 10am - 4pm

We will close every Monday and Tuesday for volunteer work parties, maintenance and project works.

A Year Like No Other

Despite being in the middle of a global pandemic, we're extremely proud to have shared our live pictures with you from the beginning of the season, over six months in all, 24 hours a day with a 24/7 live chat - notwithstanding the odd power cut.

It's kept us (mostly) sane; we hope it's done the same for you.

We opened our new Dyfi Wildlife Centre on the first day we were allowed to, legally, on 4th May, and it's been absolutely magical seeing thousands of you visit.

We finally have a fit-for-purpose centre, built on the ethos and principles you asked us to build it on - environmental sustainability using local materials and local tradespeople.

The all-roof solar array has performed better than we had anticipated. As of this morning, the centre has converted over 30 Megawatts of light energy to electrical energy; of this we've used just over half of this in the centre (16 Megawatts), feeding the remaining 15.5 Megawatts to the National Grid for others to use.

Since switching the system on in February, we have already offset almost 10 tons of Carbon dioxide.

Our ospreys have had a good year too, raising two healthy chicks, one male and one female, to migration age. The male offspring, Dysynni, was the heaviest male chick recorded at this nest.

Here are the departure times of all four birds:

• 21st August: TELYN migrated, last seen 12:00
• 24th August: YSTWYTH migrated, last seen 09:26 (92.2 days old)
• 28th August: DYSYNNI migrated, last seen 10:57 (100.1 days old)
• 30th August: IDRIS migrated, last seen 07:26

And migration ages of the 2021 offspring compared to all previous chicks:

Thanks to Janet for her help with the graphics again this year.

What Next?

We are currently busy arranging a minimum of 10 community events to be held October - December. We have some great guest speakers lined up and a really interesting range of activities. I hope some of the more locally based of you can join us for one or two of them.

Look out for upcoming event announcements on this website and our social media platforms.

We have so much work to do between now and when our ospreys return in just over six months - too much really to go into in any great detail here, suffice to say I will be writing about various projects over the coming weeks now I have a bit more time with the ospreys departed.

I would like to quickly mention one project, however.

Strong Security

We were all devastated by the terrible events at Llyn Brenig earlier in the season where the osprey nest was chainsawed down in a heinous act of malicious and intentional wildlife crime.

The Brenig nest was cut down in the middle of the night.

Thankfully the two ospreys have hung around the reservoir and continued their pair bonding over the summer - let's hope they return next year and are left alone to breed.

Over the coming months we will start planning a complete nest overhaul for next year. Our Dyfi nest will be fitted with a suite of state-of-the-art surveillance equipment, night scopes and thermal imaging cameras as well as physical barriers and deterrents.

As the threat from egg collectors seems to finally be waning in this country after 200 years, the ospreys are now faced with new threats from mankind. We will do everything in our power to make the Dyfi nest as secure and protected as possible.

We'll need a bit of help, however. I'll keep you posted.

And Finally

On behalf of Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust I would like to thank all of you for supporting us again this year. We're a small wildlife charity and the Dyfi Osprey Project receives no external funding; DOP is funded 100% by donations from you. We are eternally grateful.

I would also like to thank all our volunteers and staff that have worked so hard to deliver another great season under the most challenging of conditions. We are nothing without our people.

Volunteer thank you event last night, 11th September (only one person breaking the 'don't stand on chairs' rule)

The online shop will open in early October with the largest range of items we've ever had - including the 2022 DOP calendar, of course.

It's been like driving a slow train at times this year, with many stops and starts along the way. Once we finally got going though, and reached our destination at the end of the summer, it was all worth the effort.

Here's the 2021 Highlights video: