Bassenthwaite Osprey Project 2013 (1 Viewer)

[HelenB]

Nice to meet you, June. Glad you managed to get over for a visit this year. Looks like you had some good weather. We wn't get back to the UK until later in the summer, this year.

 

[HelenB]

The first egg has been laid! KL is doing most of the incubating, while her mate brings in fish for her.

 

[HelenB]

The Facebook feed posted on Monday, that they had lost nest pictures temporarily (hopefully) due to an undiagnosed problem. Their engineers are en-route and hope to resolve the issue. This also affects the webcam. They will keep us posted.

The previous post on Facebook was a video of a changeover of incubating duties, filmed on Sat., 11th May. You can see it here.

 

[HelenB]

The camera feed has now been fixed and you can see live pictures now on this page:
http://www.ospreywatch.co.uk/wordpress/?page_id=246

You may need to scroll down to see the photo. It is updated every 5 minutes from 10am to about 3pm. They are able to zoom in when needed.

I tried to find out how many eggs KL is incubating. They can't see into the nest cup, but they think there are 2, possibly 3 eggs, from the birds' behaviour. It is 17 days since she laid the first one, so hatching will be in about 18-24 days time.

 

[HelenB]

Not much information being posted online from Bassenthwaite, although there was an update on the Facebook page yesterday:

Day 28, another intruding osprey has been at the nest today....is it the same one that has been with us all summer....we might never know. In the last three days, just three fish have come into the nest between 10 and 5....and none of these have been fully devoured. We are in a lull of activity, which will begin to build up to the hatching date.

They don't know how many eggs are being incubated, because the nest cup is too deep for the cameras to see into. Incubation began about 7th-8th May, so they expect hatching to start from 10th June onwards, so not long to wait now!

 

[Pitvar]

Hope no one minds some terrible shots from last night but was lucky enough to see an Osprey circling the southern end of the lake before it took what I think was a Pike of around 1kg+ - did anyone catch it on the webcam? Even though it took the pike from the side I was on it then flew right across the lake and down the other side so I didn't get a close pass to ID the fish for sure

Also an otter hunting at the far side [nearest the viewing point at around the same time].

 

[HelenB]

First Chick!

There was an announcement on Facebook yesterday, that the female appears to be feeding a chick, although they can't see into the nest to confirm it. It will probably be a while until the chick(s) is big enough to peer over the edge of the nest!

Osprey Facebook page

 

[HelenB]

Today, the Osprey team saw 2 chicks being fed! KL, the female, left for 20 minutes this afternoon, which probably means that there is no more incubating to be done. The male is doing a good job bringing in lots of fish.

A photo of one of the chicks was posted on the Facebook page today:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...63.50580496838&type=1&relevant_count=1&ref=nf

 

[Boro Birder]

Any news yet on the eggs hatching or as it already happened ????

 

[Boro Birder]

Ignore above post had not seen earlier posts regarding that the eggs have hatched and KL has 2 chicks

 

[HelenB]

The 2 chicks are growing well - the oldest is now 2 weeks old.

There is a video posted on their blog. Scroll down to 25th June:
http://www.ospreywatch.co.uk/wordpress/?page_id=60

 

[HelenB]

The 2 chicks are now almost 5 weeks old and will soon have their health check. They'll be ringed and satellite tagged, too, so that their first migration south into West Africa, can be followed. The chicks usually leave at the end of August.

 

[HelenB]

Our 2 large chicks had their health check today. They were fitted with satellite transmitters and ringed. White 14 is thought to be male and White 15, female. The birds are in excellent condition.

Here's a link to a photo of White 15 getting her transmitter fitted:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f....65591931838.69663.50580496838&type=1&theater

 

[Boro Birder]

Have these birds fledged yet, has both Loch of Lowes and Loch Garten birds have done so ?????

 

[HelenB]

Have these birds fledged yet, has both Loch of Lowes and Loch Garten birds have done so ?????

No. They were only just ringed 3 days ago.

 

[Tiger_mz]

News of the return of a chick from 2007. See "An Old Friend"

 

[HelenB]

News of the return of a chick from 2007. See "An Old Friend"

Thanks for posting that, Tiger. I saw it on their Facebook page yesterday, but you beat me to it!

For anyone who doesn't want to check out the Ospreywatch page, a male ringed Yellow 7V at Bassenthwaite, from the Dodd Wood nest in 2008 (not 2007), has paired up with a non-ringed female. They are nesting at Cowal, near Dunoon in Western Scotland and this is the first time in 100 years that Ospreys have nested there. They have raised 2 healthy chicks.

 

[markhammonds]

News of the return of a chick from 2007. See "An Old Friend"

Excellent news! It would be great if there were more breeding ospreys in Lakeland.

 

[Seatallen]

Wonderful! What fantastic news!

 

[HelenB]

The 2 young Ospreys are doing lots of flapping and jumping on the nest, in readiness for their fledging. Heavy showers over the last weekend have curtailed an early fledging, but have not stopped them from continuing their wing exercises!