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Well, as I write this I'm looking out of the window and apart from everything being green, one would be forgiven for thinking that we are in the middle of winter. It's cold, pouring down with rain, and blowing a gale - not bad for the last week in June! The good news however is that our three maturing ospreys are making excellent progress staying well inside the recess of the nest sheltering from the worst of the weather; it may not give us the best opportunity to view them from the hide but at least with our fantastic camera systems we can watch their every move from the warmth of the visitor centre.

Rainbow trout seems to be fish of the day at the moment. Despite the rough weather, our adult male seems to bring a steady supply of fish in to the nest - obviously his fishing experience over the years puts him in good stead to deal with adverse weather, both in Wales and in Africa of course. He's ten years old this month in fact - many happy returns old chap!

For those of you that visit regularly we have seen a lot of other camera action this week. The swallows that we watch live on the swallow-cam (they are actually nesting in the osprey hide!) are due to be parents again in the next few days, they have five eggs; and yesterday we counted 27 little birds on the live river cam we have with the two feeders - mostly blue/great tits and goldfinches and our insistent greater spotted woodpecker. A wonderful time to visit if you are within travelling distance, bring a picnic - and an umbrella..

It's that time of year again when we ring our osprey chicks. On Friday afternoon at 4pm all three chicks were successfully ringed with a BTO (British Trust for Ornithology) metal ring placed on the left leg and a white plastic ring on the right leg.

These plastic rings are for identification purposes, hopefully when these ospreys return to the UK to breed for themselves in three or four years, we'll be able to ID them in the field with a powerful telescope.

The metal BTO rings are placed on birds for recoveries, that is, injured or dead birds could be reported to the BTO giving a time, date and location.

Of the 2,000 or so ospreys that have been ringed in the UK since the 1960s, around 10% of these have been reported back to the BTO; some of these have been found in rather exotic locations such as Iceland and the Cape Verde Islands, one ring was even found in the stomach of a crocodile a few years back!

Apart from ringing the ospreys, we also measure their wing lengths and weigh them. These are their weights:

• YC - 1230 grammes
• YD - 1390 grammes
• YE - 1547 grammes

Going by their weights and 'feel'  of the legs, we think we have a single gender threesome this year - probably all females, it is very difficult to know for sure however. Very strong winds today - gusting to 70mph but the birds seem fine sheltering as they do in the recess of the nest protected from the worst of the winds.

Doesn't time fly (excuse the pun!), our oldest chick is four weeks old today - happy birthday. They are really looking like ospreys now having progressed through the reptilian looking stage and staff, volunteers and visitors alike are attempting to work out whether we have a combination of boys and girls or whether they are all the same sex. Generally the whiter the bird the more likely it is to be male and conversely darker brown birds are typically female.

Here's the happy birthday girl/boy...

Fishing forays become more frequent now - up to six fish a day. Usually a combination of mullet, trout, salmon and the odd coarse fish - today salmon seemed to be the fish of the day.

A big thank you to all of you out there that support us by visiting, reading and leaving messages on the blog, keep those thought coming in.

More in a few days...

More mammoth fish have been brought back this week, yesterday afternoon the male brought back one of the biggest salmon we have seen at the nest — a three pounder at the least. This is probably at the heaviest end of the weight range that ospreys can manage, prey approaching the weight of the osprey itself. It was so large in fact that he decided not to leave the salmon at the nest with the three week old chicks and carried it off to his favourite perching tree to devour the head of the fish himself.

Now that the chicks are too big to brood, the female strategically positions herself on the rim of the nest between the chicks and the direct glare of the sun. As the sun moves gradually westwards so does she, moving in a clockwise direction around the nest, a bit like a sun dial.

Despite growing ever larger, the chicks will not be as proficient at regulating their own body temperature as their parents for a few weeks yet, so any help from Mum and Dad is greatly appreciated.

As we opened the visitor centre this morning we were treated to a real raptor fest; peregrine, red kite, goshawk and of course osprey all in one vista. Our three chicks will not be completely safe from predators at the nest for another week to 10 days so we're hoping that these fellows will be targeting other prey for the next few days!