The ospreys took us a little by surprise this year with their early arrival.
On Friday 26th of March we were expecting to be welcoming the first two members of our beaver family to their enclosure on the reserve, we were not expecting Telyn to turn up too! She made her arrival at 17.26 just 20 minutes after we locked the gates on the beaver enclosure.
Iolo Williams releases the first two beavers (father and son) to the enclosure on Cors Dyfi just before Telyn returns
Telyn did not have to wait too long for Idris to return, he joined her at the nest at 17.10 on Monday 29th March. With both birds back before the start of April this is the earliest start to the breeding season that we have seen here on the Dyfi. Our beavers had to wait a little longer to be joined by their breeding female, she arrived with us on the 16th April.
Both our osprey family and the beaver family have got straight to work with DIY and home-making - but don't worry - the beaver enclosure is nowhere near the osprey nest so we don't need to worry about them getting their teeth into the nest pole.
Telyn and Idris have been busy with nestorations
Telyn, Idris (front). © MWT
With the nest in good order we eagerly awaited the first egg which arrived on the 12th of April. This egg has some unusual maculation (splodges) and should mean it is easier to keep track of which egg is which this year. We have since seen eggs two and three safely laid in the nest's egg cup.
With three eggs in the nest Telyn and Idris are taking turns with the incubation and with defending the nest from intruding ospreys. We have seen one ringed intruder close to the nest but have not as yet been able to identify the bird, though it is ringed on the right leg so is from Wales or England. It could be Aeron (Blue Z2/17) as we know he has already already visited the Glaslyn and Clywedog nests.
Idris has also been spending time developing his double-fish catching technique - plucking small mullet out of the water, two at a time!
Idris brings his double-catch to the nest
Idris (right), Telyn. © MWT
Away from the osprey nest we are busy with the completion of the Dyfi Wildlife Centre. Preparations for opening are well underway although we don't have a fixed date just yet - we hope it will be sometime in the first half of May.
Visiting is going to be a little different this year with a Covid-19 safe booking system and allocated time slots for visiting. We are still finalising and testing our systems but will let you know as soon as we have them in place.
Thank you all for your continued support of the project and we hope to see you all very soon (but not all at the same time!).
