It’s been a funny old week. The Met office have confirmed that the three-month period April to June 2012 has been the worst since records began over 100 years ago. We’ve had more than three times the ‘average’ amount of rain here on the Dyfi – unprecedented and, hopefully, something we'll witness just once in a lifetime.

We’ve had a few unusual things happen on the Dyfi nest during the week, to say the least. Aggression, mating attempts, a fight with a cormorant; in fact – the only thing that has stayed consistent throughout is the weather. A few things to address this week, so this week’s blog is divided into subsections.

Nora checks on young Ceulan during a brief sunny period in between the rain showers on Friday

Aggression

Things have been a bit tense between Monty and Nora over the last few days, they’ve certainly not been seeing eye to eye.

Family squabbles - happened last year too

On Friday and Saturday (June 29th and 30th), we observed Nora mantling at Monty and pecking at him, almost as if he was an intruder osprey. What on earth would give Nora reason to behave in an aggressive way like this? Interestingly, we saw the same pattern of behaviour at around the same time last year. Roy Dennis was with us when it happened in 2011, filming for Autumnwatch, so we asked him. He was quite worried and said that he had not seen this type of behaviour in ospreys before.

Nora chases Monty off the nest even before he gets a chance to deliver his freshly-acquired nesting material

Roy also said that with controllable cameras, we were picking up on all sorts of behaviours that would be difficult to pick out using a more conventional telescope and notebook approach. Maybe aggression between two breeding ospreys like this is more common than we thought? Maybe similar events at osprey nests in the past have been ticked off as an intruder passing by? They happen so quickly we often have to slow down the recordings, frame by frame, to check which bird is which.

We have a theory! In 2011, Monty brought four flounders back to the nest in quick succession just before the mantling and aggression started - we’re convinced Nora does not like flounders, she’s not used to them. They take a lot of work to get the calories out and Nora would not have dealt with many, if any at all, before arriving at the Dyfi as a three year old. (She’s from Rutland Water – no flounders there).

She doesn't look too impressed, does she!

This week, Monty has caught four more flounders, one on Sunday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday – is there a correlation between the amount of flounders brought back and Nora’s aggression? We’ll continue to look at this as well as other possible links. Maybe the fish stats complied later on tonight (published on Facebook) will reveal something?

The Nest Perch

Before the start of this season, we made two very simple perches and placed them around three feet above the ground a few yards away from the nest. We thought the ospreys would use these low level perches if we had particularly windy days – we’ve certainly had plenty of them! We also placed a dead branch to the side of the nest, elevated a few feet above the uppermost sticks. This perch was intended for either parent, particularly at this period of the breeding season when they have growing chick(s) in the nest.

The new nest perch is certainly proving useful for both Monty and Nora. Here’s a short video of the various activities carried out on it just from this week.

Ringing and Satellite Tagging

We will ring Ceulan when he is around six weeks old, but we need decent weather to do it. As I write, Ceulan is 9 days short of six weeks. A decision whether to satellite tag Ceulan will be made on the day of the ringing, when we will be able to assess his condition and how healthy he is. He looks great on the TV screens and by being the only chick of the brood to survive, he will hopefully be stronger for it.

The satellite tracking of Leri, Dulas and Einion over the last year has provided an enormous amount of information about osprey ecology and migration. Already we have made strong links with communities and schools in Africa as well as here in Wales. Tim Mackrill from the Rutland Osprey Project is keen on developing further links with communities, schools, and universities all the way down the osprey migration route as part of the West Africa Project. Ospreys are still shot in many countries on their migration to Africa. Five ospreys have been shot dead recently - in the UK!

Sex

I'm as guilty as anyone for calling Ceulan 'he'. It's just easier than saying 'he/she' every time and a lot more endearing than calling Ceulan 'it'! From about this age onwards, however, Ceulan's phenotype (what he looks like) will start to give us clues. For a female, look for darker chest plumage as the feathers start to come through, and a thicker beak. If Ceulan had sisters or brothers in the nest with him, it would be a lot easier, of course, so it is extremely difficult saying with any degree of certainty whether Ceulan is male or female at this point. When we ring him, he will also be weighed and his wing length measured - this will give us a better idea.

Rain

Finally, the weather. It’s amazing that so much wildlife has made it this far considering all the rain and winds we’ve had – more than 200% of the usual amount of rain for the time of year. The forecast for the next week is not too clever either – when will it all end? Here’s a quick video of Nora shielding an ever-expanding Ceulan from the weather – inspirational Mother nature in both senses of the word.

This week’s blog is called ‘Bits and Bobs’ for obvious reasons, but it is also to wish our committed volunteer, Bob, a full recovery. Bob was the first person to see Nora back in the UK at 7am on April 9th last year, but he’s not been very well for a couple of weeks and has not been down to the project.  It’s his birthday today as well, so all the best, Bob – hope to see you back to full fitness soon, mate.

Young Ceulan being fed by his Dad - growing up fast and looking more like an osprey everyday