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The most fantastic news today. Elizabeth Tindal, whose a Dumfries and Galloway Council Ranger in Scotland, sent me a photograph of an unknown osprey residing in that part of the world. This osprey is ringed with a plastic Darvic ring on it's right leg with the number 80. IT"S ONE OF OURS!!!

This was a male osprey chick from our Glaslyn pair in 2006. He's obviously survived his first migration to west Africa in 2006/7 and returned to the UK this year - absolutely brilliant.

Here's a photograph taken in 2006 of the chick being ringed in Wales

and here he is two years later in Scotland (thanks to Keith Kirk for the image)

This is the first time that any of our chicks have been positively confirmed as having returned to the UK. Who knows, if the weather was fine for '80' hopefully his sibling of 2006 will have made it to Africa and back also; keep an eye out for an osprey with a black ring with '5Y' on it!

Well done to everybody here at the Glaslyn Osprey Project and to Elizabeth and Keith up in Scotland. It's moments like this that make everything seem worthwhile.

Finally, I would like to thank all the staff and dozens of volunteers that work at our Protection site each year. See, all those freezing night shifts in the forward hide in snow storms and blizzards were worth it. Congratulations.

It is the end of another busy week here at the project. Our three little fledglings are nine weeks old and aren’t so little anymore. This week has seen them spending more and more time away from the nest as they practise their flying and fishing. It won’t be too long before these crucial skills are put to use on their migration. We are making the most of seeing all five birds on the nest together and they seemed happy to pose for this family portrait. Here we have Mum at the back, a proud Dad to the left and for the first time in Wales, three fully grown chicks.

It seems all our little ones are growing up very quickly. The mute swan cygnets that frequent the Glaslyn river just outside the hide are nearly big enough to be ringed, and this weekend brought the fledging of our five little swallow chicks. Our keen-eyed viewers of the swallow-cam have noticed the adult female is ringed - we are hoping to get a closer look to find out a bit more about her. It will be interesting to see how many times she has made it to Africa, she might even beat the ospreys!.
One lucky visitor reported a sighting of our three ospreys fishing by the cob estuary in Porthmadog today. Now is the time the ospreys will be practising their skills including Mum who has had little flying and fishing practise during the last few months. Not forgetting Dad, this means there are five osprey out and about; if you live near Snowdonia or are heading here for your holidays, keep an eye to the sky, you never know who you will see…

Today is a momentous day for ospreys in Wales. At 10.42 this morning the third chick threw herself off the nest and embarked on her maiden flight, circling for around 40 seconds before alighting on the nest tree about half way up. Here she stayed (we think she's a female) for just over an hour until her father returned to the nest with a large trout in talon; the decision then became clear, stay where she was, out of reach of food, or undertake her second flight back to the nest. Hunger soon got the better of her and she decided to return at 11.45.

Here's that historical moment when, for the first time, a third osprey fledged out of a Welsh nest.

The ring number is YE; her sibling YC (male we think) fledged on Monday. Here he is taking off for the first time.

This is the fifth year that the Glaslyn ospreys have been nesting in Wales and still remain our only pair and officially our rarest breeding species. In 2004 a storm blew the nest down containing two young chicks, they perished immediately. In 2005, two chicks hatched and subsequently fledged, a third egg failed to hatch. In both 2006 and 2007 three chicks hatched only for one chick to die in the nest both years. So these are ospreys number seven, eight and nine to successfully fledge from our Glaslyn pair, not bad in five years and well above the UK breeding rate.

The Glaslyn Osprey Project will remain open until 7 September by which time hopefully all five ospreys will have started their long migration to west Africa, three of them for the first time of course. These ospreys will still be seen live in and around the nest on our large screens for several weeks yet, so do come and join in the fun if you possibly can (and bring some sunshine with you)

Not been a bad year for Wales has it? Swansea promoted, Cardiff in the FA cup final, Wales - Grand Slam winners (no that's not a misprint) and three ospreys fledging for the first time ever. Da iawn.

Our first osprey has fledged, 16.22 this afternoon. It's the oldest of the three that had the longest wing span (at ringing) and the middle in weight - 1390g. This bird is 49 days old and is very early making its maiden flight. The ring is YD and despite thinking that we had three females this year, most observers in recent days have sided with two females and YD being a male. Nobody will really know of course until YD comes back in a few years time hopefully to breed for him/her self.

The first flight came 105 years after the Wright brothers' maiden flight, climbed to a similar altitude of 10 feet and lasted three seconds longer that Orville's attempt (YD - 15 seconds)

It just goes to show that you cannot predict nature, not one member of staff, volunteers or visitors guessed it would be this early when our first chick took to the sky. If you live within travelling distance (whatever that means!) try and come down over the weekend - it could be you that sees one of the other chicks fledge next.

Here's that magical moment when YD took to the air for the first time

One down, two to go...

We're getting close now, very close. Even though many of us have been watching these ospreys for years, it's still a little strange to see three such large chicks in one nest at the same time. As ever at this stage, there is much friendly debate as to the day the first chick is going to fledge - opinions vary from as early as this Saturday through to next Wednesday. A lot of serious wing flapping going on at the moment and the occasional helicopter flight as I call them, actually being airborne for a few seconds hovering perilously over the nest; this can't be an easy skill to master in the strong winds we've had of late. It's incredible to see the live images of the chicks as they do this, they constantly micro adjust their position in the air by moving different, and sometimes individual, feathers. They are continiously changing the pitch of their streamlined bodies in relation to differing wind conditions just like a large aircraft would by using rudder, flaps and ailerons but in a much more elegant way of course! We sometimes forget how masterful ospreys are at aerial manoeuvring, this photograph shows our male osprey returning to the nest a few days ago only to find an intruder near by. The image is not upside-down!

Those that have been following our live swallow-cam at the visitor centre will be pleased to know that we, or should I say they, now have five hungry little mouths to feed. Brilliant to see these on a 46" plasma screen!

For the Welsh speakers/learners blogging in, the whole of the BBC's Galwad Cynnar radio program will be live from the Glaslyn Osprey Project this Saturday 5, July from 06.30 to 08.00 on Radio Cymru. This will coincide with our second community weekend of the season - everybody welcome as usual, over 2,500 people visited during the last event. (see earlier blog for some more details)

Finally, for those of you that visit, please be aware that we are in the middle of some construction changes at the moment and in the next few days the entrance/exit gate will change to a newer site around 70 metres away (towards Porthmadog). As soon as we have our first chick fledge, I'll let you know..