Glesni has started her migration. Or has she?

At just before 10am last Monday (17th August) morning, Glesni was standing in the middle of her nest, peering down as if she was looking at her feet. She did this for several minutes. What a strange thing to do!

At 09:59 Celyn appeared and muscled her mother off the nest. That was the last we saw of her that day, and the following.

As someone kept mentioning in an osprey book recently, ospreys can make you look very foolish if you're not careful. One has to be on guard all the time.

Almost two days after this last sighting, I wrote a blog on the DOP Facebook and Twitter pages to confidently declare that Glesni had started her migration. Surely she had gone - almost 48 hours after the last sighting? By sundown on the Monday she could easily have made the south coast of England and by the Wednesday morning she could well have been in southern France or even Spain.

The last photograph - Not!

She wasn't. Shortly after 10am on Wednesday morning, a large female landed on the larch perch - everybody in the visitor centre yelled in happiness, Glesni was back. My heart sank. They'd done it to me again - I'd fallen for the osprey version of April's Fool and been done over like a kipper.

Back. Has he written that migrated blog yet?

Glesni had done something similar last year - although not for almost two days. Where had she been? The weather was perfect for migration - why had she come back?

Glesni had probably not gone far at all. More like Tywyn than Torremolinos. Dinner was quickly rearranged from fish pie to humble pie that evening.

I'm still here...

The next day, Thursday, Glesni was still around. Not on the nest very much, just hopping from one low perch to the next on the salt marsh. We haven't seen her since - so that is now almost three days ago as I write this.  Has she started her migration? Well don't ask me!

Glesni's movements on Monday and Thursday, August 17th & 20th:

If Glesni has gone (big IF!), she will have been on the Dyfi 133 days in all this season. In 2014 she was with us for 131 days.

In fact, last season and this were pretty similar for Glesni. She arrived within one day of each other - April 10th (2014) and 9th; she also departed just a day apart - August 19th (2014) and 20th.

There is one big difference though. At the age of five years, Glesni raised three chicks for the first time. So that's two, two, and three in just three years. Seven healthy chicks between 2013 and 2015  - that's a productivity rate of 2.33 per year on average which is also pretty healthy.  

So it's that time of year again where Monty is left to look after the teens for a few more days by himself. Merin, Celyn and Brenig will probably hang around for another week or so, relying on their father for sustenance.

As we approach September however, their urge to fly south and gain independence for the first time is getting stronger by the day. Their constant screaming for food is not letting off, it's a constant irritation when you hear them for several hours throughout each day. But oh, how we will miss them when it stops.

But for now, fly safe Glesni. Whether you're in Borth or Barcelona, your job is done for another year - and what a job you did.

UPDATE: 24th August

Is there no end to tomfoolery?

Four days after the last sighting and a complete week since we first thought she'd gone, guess who landed on the larch perch at 07:35 this morning?

Looks like Glesni was on Borth beach and not Barcelona after all!

Lots of hat shops online these days which is excellent news.