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Well, as I sit at my desk on Tuesday morning, listening to Shostakovich, I 'm experiencing a plethora of emotions. Relief that the project has finished after 172 days, absolute joy that all three chicks fledged for the first time ever this year, a strange emptiness that is that vacuum  in all of our lives once again that the ospreys have all gone and intense optimism. Optimism and hope that all five birds get to Africa unhindered, winter well, and that we'll see both parents back next year and hopefully the fledglings in years to come.

I'm pretty sure that our final osprey left the Glaslyn Friday night/Saturday morning. I saw the male parent at around 3pm on Friday on a favourite tree near Moel Ddu - I've not seen an osprey since. The wind finally turned northerly on Friday night after seemingly weeks of cold Atlantic westerly and southerly winds; this is often the queue that ospreys take as that final decider that it is time to go.

After all the tribulations and stories that have been told from this  osprey nest over the last few months it is always a strange feeling to be peering into an empty nest once again.

At the fifth year of breeding at the Glaslyn, the ospreys finally hit gold. Three eggs, three chicks and three fledglings heading for Africa for the first time. We started with two ospreys, finished with five and by the time we closed yesterday had greeted 30,000 visitors to the project and welcomed 460 new members to the RSPB.

Finally a thank you. All of you that helped in so many ways throughout the year whether staff or volunteers, residential or local. Over 100 volunteers and helpers contributed 5,000 hours to the project this year. It is a clear fact that the Glaslyn Osprey Project could simply not operate as it does  without this involvement. No names mentioned here, there are simply too many of you, but you know who you are - thank you, diolch.

This will be the last blog entry for the Glaslyn Osprey Project this year. With sadness we closed the project yesterday, with pride we look back over the last six months and with excitement we look forward to next March. I wonder what Dimitri would have thought of all this!

See you next spring. Hwyl fawr.

As we approach our final week here at the project it will be a race to see if we leave before the birds. Thick fog at the end of last week was obviously not ideal migrating weather and all five birds were seen in the area. We have been treated to some fabulous sights from the viewing hide, with both adults perching up on the mountain side for all to see. All three juveniles were out and about but still no confirmation of YE catching a fish for herself. The two males seem more capable but still won't refuse a free meal from Dad if it is on offer and who can blame them?

Saturday brought very different conditions, the cloud had lifted and we were treated to some rare sunshine. It is possible this clear break in the weather is what our female had been waiting for as she has not been seen since Friday. It is likely that she has begun her migration now as she was certainly due to go! As the birds have less of a bond with the nest it is impossible to tell exactly when they go. Our male has been seen fishing in the area and YE was seen flying over the viewing site yesterday, unmistakable as she looks like a Turkey! YD our eldest male has been seen the most, he returned to the nest on Saturday with a fish he probably caught himself. He is in particularly fine form and looks every bit like an adult osprey. He is definitely spending more time at the nest than the others and was calling from the camera pole yesterday.

YC, our second male has not been positively identified since the middle of last week. Maybe he has followed in Mum's path and has headed off on his big journey. Staff and volunteers are still keeping their eyes peeled for any birds passing through on migration. We had hoped to see a return of the single female from earlier in the season for one last chance of identification but it seems she is now long gone.

We are still open until the 7th of September so please pop in and see us if you are passing by. If you have never seen an osprey before, now is your chance because we still have some to show you!