April was the wettest month since records began in the UK, it's official. Mid Wales has had her fair share of rain, hail, sleet and even snow. We've had strong winds too, on Sunday it was gusting to over 50mph.
Nora did not look too impressed incubating her eggs in the howling wind and rain on Sunday afternoon
How does all this wet weather affect ospreys? Well, it can be devastating. A large percentage of ospreys failed to breed in Scotland last year due to unseasonably harsh weather in April, many nests were literally blown to pieces. Here in Wales both the Glaslyn and the Dyfi nests are manmade (to start with anyway), so this stronger foundation using wires and cable ties can mitigate against the worst of the wind. The ospreys still have to catch fish though in bad weather - both the Glaslyn and Dyfi ospreys are estuarine feeders predominantly, trout and mullet make up a large part of their prey. Thankfully, both males are good providers and seem to be able to fish in rough weather despite the waters being choppy and silt levels being high.
Monty has been back home exactly a month - here is a chart comparing the fish numbers he has caught per week this year (red), compared to last year (grey). During the first two weeks last year, he brought back almost twice the number of fish as this year - was this because he was in poorer condition returning in 2012, or was it the 'chocolates and flowers' effect, trying to attract a female for the first time? We may never know!
Last year, all three of Nora's eggs were different enough from each other in terms of individual blotching and markings for us to be able to tell them apart. This year is no different, we'll be able to individually identify them throughout the 37-day incubation period so that when the chicks hatch, we will know exactly which egg they're from and therefore the exact incubation period of each bird. There's a short description of each egg in last week's post - can you tell which is egg number 1, 2 and 3?
A big thanks to all the volunteers who have kindly donated their time to protecting these precious three eggs over the last two weeks or so - we are around 35% of the way through incubation as I write. Nocturnal shifts are never easy but with the new HD cameras and IR lamps this year, we can see for miles around, and in glorious High Definition. This has made a great improvement to our security and surveillance measures, we have still retained the ground sensors and alarms from last year, however, as well as the other regular tools and tricks of the trade.
Live Streaming. We were hoping to have had our live streaming up and running by now. We were told on April 4th that the installation of the four new phone lines we require to upload HD video would take around two weeks. We are now being told around mid May. Several engineers have been and gone and we were allocated the wrong exchange to start with. We keep getting automated text messages saying 'there is a delay with your order' but with no explanation or definitive installation date. It will cost over £4,000 to set the live web streaming up as we have to pay line rental (4 times) plus broadband charges (4 times) for each month of the year; we may have to defer the live streaming until next year depending on any future delays - we will keep you updated. Let's say that we have been badly let down by a British company dealing in Telecoms.
Military. The Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust asked the Ministry of Defence in 2011 whether they would look at setting up a low flying avoidance area over the Dyfi nest for this year. We asked for a 500ft altitude threshold and a 1Km radius around the nest - this was to protect the ospreys from aircraft strikes as neither osprey nor pilot have enough reaction time to avert each other at 500 mph. We believe that this avoidance measure has now been put in place from April 1st to September 1st annually, although we have not heard back officially from the MOD. It is important to remember, of course, that this measure will not only protect the ospreys from danger but also the pilot and his/her aircraft. There have been several incidences of serious injury and even fatalities over the last few years from large bird strikes - even in civil aviation. "We'll be in the Hudson" a very recent example.
Einion and Dulas. Both our boys are doing fine and have hardly moved an inch for months. Dulas is in Guinea-Bissau and Einion on the coast of Senegal still. All the breeding adult ospreys will have left Africa by now, so both boys will have the place to themselves! Next month they will both be a year old - how time flies (excuse the pun!)
