Both chicks are doing great. The eldest chick is nine days old today and the youngest exactly a week. Happy Birthday!

Thankfully, the Goldilocks weather that we had hoped for did arrive. Yes we had some rain but overall it wasn't too wet, cold, hot or dry. Perfect for a young osprey family who are at their most vulnerable when they are very young, just like any other living organism.

Two little ospreys, just starting out in life..

Interestingly, Monty has been widening his range of prey species this week with a growing family to provide for. Making an appearance for the first time in 2013 on the piscatorial menu are perch, roach and sea bass. So why's that?

For Monty to catch his more regular fish species, mullet, flounder, and trout, he needs varying tidal phases and he also needs decent weather. The more windy it is (and it has been very windy for July here this week), the more turbulent the estuary becomes and therefore more silty. Even osprey eyes can't see through dense silt so Monty has to have a rethink. Even though they are smaller fish and contain less calories, Monty has chosen not to wait for the weather to improve or for an optimal tide phase (like he usually does), but to catch these smaller fish because he has a growing family and chicks just a few days old that need regular feeding. Roach and perch are to be found further up the river where tides are of no importance and silting less of an issue. The sea bass would have been caught more out to sea where again, tides and silt are less of a problem.

Glesni grapples with a different kind of perch this week

This is a classic example of ospreys that breed in estuarine habitats having a 'Plan B' when the going gets tough. Brilliant recourse allocation and decision making by male ospreys. There's a PhD there somewhere!

As I write on Sunday morning, the weather is dead calm and sunny and flounder is back on the menu. Both chicks are feeding and growing strong.

Monty & Glesni's fish pie to date.. (thanks to Vicky and Alwyn from preparing these each week)

Blue 24

We've had 61 separate osprey intruder events this season so far, at the same point last year (July 7th) we were up to 35. So what's going on?

Well, there will not be 61 different ospreys, many of the intruder visits will be by the same bird. We're pretty sure there's a non-breeding male around  (with a moulting secondary feather on his left wing) and Dai Dot, another male that is a Dyfi resident for at least the last three years, has made a few appearances. At a very rough guess, we've probably recorded between 20 and 30 individual birds. So let's try and answer a very commonly asked question on Facebook and emails:

Why are so many ospreys attracted to the Dyfi?

Well, the answer is simple. The Dyfi, like countless estuaries up and down the coast of UK and Ireland, is a great place for ospreys to breed. It has the kind of habitat they need and it has the food they need. But the big elephant in the room here is the nest.

Ospreys are attracted to other active osprey nests like bees to honey. They are infatuated by them and there's a very good reason. If a non-breeding osprey (male or female) sees another nest with eggs or chicks in, it means that this must be a good area for ospreys to breed. The decision is made for them, two other birds have taken the 'gamble', it's worked - it's a no brainer. Oh, there's a Brucie bonus in it for them too - if they can displace the corresponding osprey (male to male or female to female), the nest is theirs, a free house. No more prospecting, wasting valuable time, assessing a habitat for its osprey-worthiness. It's winner takes all but without Jimmy Tarbuck. Job done.

Ten days ago on June 26th, we had a visit from a ringed female osprey. Blue ring, right leg, number 24. She is another Rutland osprey, born in 2010 just like Glesni, and she's even related to Glesni.

They are cousins. Blue 24's father (AW, born 2006) is the brother of Glesni's mum, 5N (born 2004).

Family visitor on June 26th to the Dyfi nest

It's not the first time that Blue 24 has been sighted back in the UK however. She spent the summer of 2012 as a two year old on the south coast of England at Arlington reservoir near Eastbourne. This year she was first sighted near the Glaslyn osprey nest and then at her ancestral home in Rutland on April 27th. Two days later she was back at Glaslyn and photographed on April 29th!

Blue 24 has been sighted on the Dyfi several times since June 26th including last Friday evening (July 5th) when we caught her on tape. Look at this amazing footage of Blue 24 circling the nest with a very perturbed Glesni looking quite upset. Glesni's 'intruder' vocalisations are incredible - turn the volume up..  (best in HD)

The parallels between both ospreys are intriguing. Two females, both from Rutland, both hatched within days of each other in 2010, first cousins. In 2012 they were both back in the UK as two year olds prospecting for suitable osprey habitats, nests, and males. They would both have returned to Africa last autumn with a visual map ingrained into their brains of their research efforts of that year.  

As we now know, one of the cousins got lucky in 2013. One possible nesting site on Glesni's 'places to visit in 2013' map was the Dyfi nest, and to her good fortune when she did visit this nest again in 2013 on May 3rd, Nora (another relative, her Aunt) had not returned. A simple, determined three day perseverance effort resulted in breaking the tenuous bond Monty had started to make with an unringed female, Seren, and the job was done. Glesni had found a partner in just her third year, and just in time to breed to boot. Perfect timing.

Blue 24 has visited at least four good sites for ospreys that we know of..

We wish Blue 24 well in her search for a suitable nest and mate.

The Wildlife Trust's work with ospreys in England, Scotland, and Wales continues. Just recently, Tim Mackrill and his colleagues from the Rutland Osprey Project have been putting up more nest platforms in neighbouring counties and Wildlife Trusts to attract these returning Rutland birds. We have two platforms on Cors Dyfi and by consulting our colleagues in the Dyfi angling fraternity, we hope to be able to put another platform up in the future, further away.

The Wildlife Trusts have been giving nature a home for the last 100 years and we'll continue do so as fervently as ever.