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The Glaslyn Ospreys are now proud parents to three chicks, the second chick was born on Thursday 14 May at 6.10am and the third chick was seen at 5.42am Sunday 17 May.

The recent stormy weather is a cause of concern with some twigs been blown off the nest early this morning (Monday 18 May), however the chicks are safe and well and the mother is doing an excellent job of mantling the chicks to protect them from the elements.

Mantling is one of the vital roles of the mother, if the chicks get wet and cold their body temperature will drop and they become vulnerable, they will need to keep dry and warm at this stage to ensure their successful growth.

The father is also doing his bit and working hard to catch local trout from the estuary down in Porthmadog to feed the chicks. He has been seen bringing between four and five fish to the nest every day, this will help the growth and development of the chicks and in six weeks they will start to learn the basics of flying.

Good news today - the Glaslyn osprey pair’s first chick hatched this morning (Wednesday 13 May).  The youngster was seen fully emerged when the mother moved off the eggs at around 9.11am.

The remaining two eggs continue to be incubated by the adult birds, and we hope they will hatch over the next few days, so if you’re visiting the site today you’ll be the first to see the chick. At the moment, the new arrival is completely bald, still wet and absolutely tiny, as you would expect from a chick that is just a few hours old.  Later today, we will see its eyes open properly and it will have its first feed.

We’ll keep you posted of any more developments as soon as we see them.

It was a relatively quiet week last week, with the pair spending most of their time incubating and tidying the nest – the male occasionally brought fish back to the nest.

Over the weekend the large female osprey was seen again, and was mobbing the nest – on both occasions the pair chased her off with the eggs kept safe and well away from the outsider.

Another pair of ospreys have been regularly seen circling high above the valley, and then moving off to the north towards Beddgeleret. Where they’ve come from and where they go to is not know, and although there is a nesting platform nearby they do not appear to be taking any interest in that.

We’ll keep you posted on their whereabouts and update you on any news about the eggs as soon as anything happens.

The large female osprey that kept appearing at the start of the month has now disappeared and has not been seen since last week. This seems to have relaxed our pair of ospreys with a third egg appearing on Sunday morning (12 April), and both birds are sharing the incubation.

The male bird has been carrying a lot of moss and bark into the nest over the last few days, with the female busy packing this around the eggs. The nest itself is very deep this year - some say this is a sign of bad weather to come - and is to ensure the safe keeping of the eggs so that they don’t roll out.

The nest cam as now been repositioned by remote control to give a better view of the nest and the eggs inside, visitors can now see the eggs clearly on the screens in the viewing centre.

All we have to do now is wait until the middle of May for the first sign of any chicks…

The Glaslyn ospreys have today revealed another egg in their nest – making it double trouble for the pair near Porthmadog.

Ospreys usually lay every other day so we had been expecting the second egg to be laid yesterday.  We can only assume that this second female osprey has been hassling our pair enough to cause the delay. 

We will expect a third egg in a couple of days so watch this space!

Another busy week was had here at the Glaslyn Osprey Project - both birds were busy building up the nest and feeding. On Monday a large female osprey (staff working at the site think that she may be one of the chicks from 2007) was seen attacking the nest, which caused both our ospreys to be very defensive. The large female osprey eventually flew off up the Glaslyn valley towards Beddgelert.

The large female re-appeared on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, and again dive bombed our resident nest. No sighting of the large female was noted over the weekend, and there was reason to celebrate this morning (Monday 6 April) when the first egg of the season was sighted.

The female had been agitated on Sunday evening and when she returned back to the nest after 5pm last night, she was moving around the nest and engaging in displacement activity.  Normally the female osprey would lay every other day, with a total of three eggs expected during the next few days. Each egg will be incubated for around 37 days, which means hatching should occur in mid-May.  Watch this space!

Yes, the pair of ospreys that have nested at Pont Croesor, near Porthmadog, every year since 2004 have returned, much to our delight here at the RSPB Cymru viewing site.

The male arrived on Saturday 21 March with the female arriving a day later. We are now open and busy preparing for the first wave of visitors for the new season.

The adults are the only known nesting pair of ospreys in Wales. Two chicks successfully fledged from the Glaslyn osprey nest in 2005, followed by another two in 2006 and 2007 with a record three fledging in 2008.

If you want to know more please visit www.rspb.org.uk/datewithnature

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!

Well, another week has passed and we still have five ospreys here at the Glaslyn. On Saturday, our protection staff observed all three chicks on the nest, with a fish kindly delivered by Dad. Brown Trout was on the menu, a fish large enough for all three hungry mouths. YE got her share first, whilst her brothers waited patiently for their turn. At the same time Mum returned with a fish of her own to the feeding tree. The two adult birds then perched together for nearly an hour, will this be the last time we see them together this season?

With the two male chicks fledging earlier than expected we thought they might be quick to head off to Africa. At the moment all three chicks look quite content to stay around the valley with regular fish supplied by Dad. An ordinary day is usually quiet to begin with. Mid-afternoon is when the action starts. The male returns with his latest catch and delivers it straight to the nest. Here, Dad is greeted by a calling chick, most frequently our female, YE. Sunday was particularly busy. Between 4pm and 5.30pm our male brought three fish to the nest, one for each of his offspring. We also had good views of the red kite that has been with us all summer.

The project has just over two weeks left for this season and we are very surprised to have so many ospreys to show our visitors. Many Scottish based ospreys will have begun their migration so we will also be keeping an eye out for any passing through!. Who knows, maybe our 2006 chick O8 will pop by to see his old home. The big question is which of our chicks will depart first? The smart money is on our eldest chick, YD. Though as this season has shown us, you can never tell with these birds!

Finally, a get well message to our wonderful volunteer Judith who is in hospital recuperating after a nasty accident. See you soon Judith.

As we approach mid August we still have all five ospreys at the Glaslyn. We would have expected the female to start her migration south by now but she is still showing well most days - maybe the fact that the daughter chick is still not fishing properly for herself is cause for concern for her so she's staying just a bit longer than normal. Last Monday, Alwyn, one of our osprey wardens was lucky enough to see all five of our Glaslyn ospreys fishing in the bay at Borth y Gest near Porthmadog (right next door to Portmeirion - the Italian village). He really needs to do other things on his days off!

A question that we're asked most days is how do we know the difference between the male and female osprey? Well, apart from being slightly larger than the male, she is a lot darker than him, particularly underneath and around the chest. Look at the images below - they are quite distinct from each other, male on the left.

I reckon that there will be ospreys at the Glaslyn until the end of the month and perhaps into September, although when the female will depart is anybodies guess - perhaps the un-seasonal southerly winds have deterred her from going. Do visit if you can, we can't promise you sunshine but we can promise ospreys most days. More in a few days..

August at the Glaslyn has got off to a wet start with the weather. However, the rain has not dampened our spirits, as we are all still overjoyed at the news of our 2006 chick setting up home in Scotland. Meanwhile, back at the Glaslyn, his younger siblings are thriving.  Our male chicks, YC and YD are taking after their Dad and have both become successful fishermen. This week has seen them bringing larger fish back to the nest, mainly grey mullet from the Porthmadog Cob Estuary. YE, the youngest female chick, has been a little slow on the uptake. She often arrives at the nest, if one of her brothers returns with a meal, and begs for a share. This is not necessarily a cause for concern - YE was the last to hatch and fledge so it may be nothing more than her taking her time. We hope to see her catching up over the next month as it is crucial for her to be able to fish for herself on migration.

It is not just the chicks that have been keeping busy. Our adult male has been seen building a 'frustration nest'. This is typical behaviour that we see at the end of the season and does not mean of course that he is setting up another nest with the intention of having a second brood!

Here he is carrying sticks back to the secondary nest.

We currently have all five birds in the area on a regular basis. Last season our final sighting of our female bird was on the 8th of August. We will be keeping an eye out for her departure, at some point in the next few weeks and will of course keep you all updated on any developments.

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.