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Holding the fort – that’s EJ and Odin just now! It’s a period of waiting and hoping, but with the odd burst of excitement.

Yesterday, hungry and cold after a long spell of incubating in an easterly breeze, EJ had started glancing upwards at an incoming osprey. She soon started calling – but harsher than usual. This bird landed in the camera tree and then the nest…at which point, she went bananas! She was standing up and flapping at it, while it blundered around – thankfully, avoiding standing on the eggs.

Either this was Odin – trying to incubate, but getting a bad reception for returning with neither food nor nesting material…. or… it was an equally young, keen male trying to impress EJ. You see, this bird was unringed, too.

To confuse matters further, he even seemed to submit to EJ – facing away and dropping his head. A few minutes passed and we then had two males in flight over the nest, one of which landed in the camera tree again – this time with a fish, eating and calling repeatedly! EJ herself seemed a little confused by this stage and appeared to keep doing ‘double takes’! She then called for food, at which point the unringed male dutifully brought her the fish and she allowed him to take over incubation - Odin to the rescue!

He seems to be doing his level best to provide a couple of fish each day (usually brown trout or pike) and he is obviously getting the hang of defending the nest. His most recent interceptions include four crows and a couple of greylag geese! Speaking of intercepting things, I must dash – our volunteers Richard and Adam have just found us two lekking capercaillie!    

All seems to be going very well here at the centre, with Odin continuing to help with the incubation of the eggs and not just when EJ is eating. It is great to see her getting time to chill out and preen in the camera tree, especially as it has been so hot some days.

Yesterday even saw Odin taking a turn overnight, which is rather unusual. He certainly is a modern man! It is always more uncomfortable for the male osprey to incubate as he has a much smaller brood patch and is smaller in the body. They tend to wriggle about more!

Odin has also been supplying plenty of fish of a good size to EJ. There have been seven since Wednesday. Although he has brought in some rainbow trout, he seems to favour brown trout and pike. Perhaps the fish farm is a little too busy!

That said: EJ still awaits the first fish of the day. We thought Odin was away fishing this morning for about 40 minutes, then EJ started to food solicit and so we knew he must be nearby. We found him perched very close into the trunk of the camera tree, obviously managing to hide from us, but not from EJ! He then took over the incubating, whilst EJ took a long break of half an hour away from our sight.

There are long peaceful periods during incubation time, but EJ and Odin have had some stressful times too, with an intruding osprey two days running. Yesterday we had three ospreys (including an intruder) sat in the camera tree at one point and today one tried to land on the nest several times. Odin was very quick to chase them away. We are now waiting for him to return with a fish.

First things first, there will be no egg yolks on this blog today..... get it?...... egg yolks?.... ok so moving on. The fantastic news today is that there is now a third egg! Our first sighting of the egg was at 3:07 this morning and since then EJ and Odin have both been taking turns incubating. We are all relieved, happy and excited that we now have a full clutch and are keeping our fingers, toes, eyelashes...... well we're pretty much keeping everything crossed that the incubation goes well.

As if that wasn't eggciting enough (I know, I know, I just can't help myself), here is a run down of some of the facts and figures of the past few days;

• Since the 18th of April Odin has brought in 12 fish, that's an average of 3 a day.
• Odin and EJ have mated 7 times over the past four days.
• There have been 5 instances of intruding ospreys, all of which have been effectively dealt with by Odin and EJ.

Lest we forget, there is a huge amount of other wildlife at Loch Garten and the good weather over the past few days has provided us with sightings of lizards, red squirrels, goldeneye ducks and even a few glimpses of crested tits! So all in all it has been a very exciting few days here at the Centre, and we are all eggstatic (ok I'll stop now) about how well the ospreys are doing so far.

And finally a big hello to Cargilfield Pre-Prep P2 class and Sedgefield Hardwick Primary Reception Class. Miss Combe and Miss Briggs were in the Centre over Easter and told us you are all big fans of EJ and Odin.

Stop press!  The wait is over...we had our first sighting of the second egg at 7.09am this morning!  Odin also got his first sighting of it at this time too, when he brought some nesting material in to the nest!  Odin has just taken a turn incubating the eggs, allowing EJ to have a preen in the sunshine at the top of the camera tree!

So a very exciting Sunday morning so far here at the Centre!  We await the next fish...

 Its been a busy week here at Loch Garten, with not only the arrival of the first egg, but another intruder and even more mating!  EJ kept us all waiting with baited breath, and produced an egg on Thursday morning, with the first sighting just before midday.  The centre has been quite literally buzzing ever since, and we anticipate the laying of a second egg either later today or tomorrow!  It is great to watch EJ and Odin taking turns incubating the egg, it feels like the season is well under way, and needless to say all of us here at the centre have got our fingers and toes firmly crossed!

As if laying an egg was not enough activity for one day, EJ and Odin also had to see off an intruding osprey on Thursday as well.  This was probably a late comer looking for a mate, and Odin proved himself once more as he immediately flew to the nest to defend it and see off the intruder!

So far today Odin has brought in two fish, including a rainbow trout.  As we have come to expect from Odin, these were good sized fish, which EJ made fast work of, finishing both of them in around fifteen minutes!  Odin has also taken over incubation duty at several other points today, allowing EJ to enjoy exercise flights and even a good preen in the sunshine at the top of the camera tree!

As always...we await the next fish....and of course the next egg...

We were all very excited on Monday morning, as EJ had roosted on the nest on Sunday night, usually a sign that she is soon to lay an egg!  We watched and waited with baited breath all day yesterday, but to no avail!  And no sign of one yet today, so we shall keep watching and waiting!

The weekend was a busy one both in the centre and on the nest, with all of us enjoying the beautiful spring sunshine!  Following my previous blog, Odin returned with a rainbow trout, which would suggest he has just discovered the fish farm!  However, the majority of his fish continue to be brown trout. 

Here is a brief run down of the antics on the nest since Saturday morning -

- Odin has brought in ten fish.

- They have mated forty-two times.

- They have both been nest scrapping to prepare the nest cup for the eggs, as well as bringing in more branches and moss.

As if all that was not enough, the pair had a hectic Easter Sunday, having to chase three ravens and an intruding osprey away from the nest!  Another male osprey also attempted to woo EJ with a display flight this afternoon, but she was having none of it, especially as Odin had just brought her a fish!

So we await the next fish.....and the first egg.....

As expected at the start of the season the Osprey Centre has been very busy..... but not as busy as our new male Odin. Not a minute of the day goes by without seeing our male displaying, preparing the nest, mating or delivering fish, he certainly is making a good impression on EJ.

However it is not only EJ who is impressed.... our visitors have been entertained by Odin's nest gathering forays right in front of the Centre as well as his frequent display flights.... Our new male certainly isn't camera shy!

For those who have never seen an osprey display flight it is certainly a sight to behold....the male flies up and down in a roller coaster fashion, brandishing a fish whilst making a sound that can only be described as being similar to a squeaky bike!

His fishing exploits are quickly becoming a talking point with four fish being brought in on both Wednesday and Thursday as well as a 16" brown trout this morning... the lack of any rainbow trout so far, would suggest he has possibly not found the fish farm yet.

So spring has definately sprung at Loch Garten, and excitement is in the air...and it is not just the osprey who have been entertaining the staff and visitors this past week!  We have been treated to woodpeckers on the feeders, a capercaillie drying off in a tree after a downpour, squirrels attempting to master eating from seed feeders as well as peanut feeders, and toads ambling across the path and carpark on the way to their mating pools! 

We anticipate it being very busy over the Easter weekend, so we shall publish a blog on Tuesday to update you on all the news...until then we await the next fish....

The new Loch Garten male has been with us since Friday afternoon now and is doing all the right things.  Fetching fish, mating, nest scraping and nest refurbishment.  Looking good so far.

He's un-ringed and there are two possible explanations for that.

1. Given that there are now c.200 pairs of ospreys, it is not always possible for those that ring them, to get around to all those known nests at ringing time, which is a brief window of a few weeks when chicks are between 4-6 weeks old, plus there will be some nests for sure that are not known.  So he could be a Scottish bird from a Scottish nest.

2. Equally, he could be a bird from another population, from further north, heading back there, to Scandinavia maybe, where the osprey population is larger than ours and where less ringing work is carried out.  He's perhaps just passed through Scotland en route home and has lucked upon unattached EJ at her nest and thought she will do nicely thank you.

Without leg ring letters to act as a cue like for EJ, VS and HV and given this possible connection with Scandinavia, the Norse maybe, we're calling him Odin. It's also fits with previous examples of osprey naming alliteration such as Ollie and Olive.

More news anon. 

Richard Thaxton - Loch Garten site manager.

I've just arrived at the office to post a blog up-date, but the immediacy of having a live-streaming webcam is that judging by all the comments I've just gone through and published, you know the news already!

Yep, we have a male osprey.  These past two days of high pressure, fine weather - good for migration, has no doubt seen a surge in arrivals of more migrant birds, ospreys amongst them.

He arrived yesterday afternoon, 3rd April at about 1.30pm. It is not Henry or VS, but an all new suitor for EJ, an unringed bird, origins unknown.  He's looking good so far. How's this for his first 24 hours - seven sky-dance display flights above the nest to impress EJ, seven matings so far, all deemed to be successful, he's brought her one fish so far at 8am this morning, and he has been bringing in nesting material, sticks and moss etc and he's done some nest scraping too. He's thrilled visitors with some very close approaches to the Osprey Centre building, when making sorties to collect sticks. It looks like this boy means business.  Thankfully, EJ would appear to like the cut of his jib, and has been quite accepting of him at and near the nest. Phew, that's a relief! 

Needless to say, we're thrilled at this latest development and right now it's looking good. Time will tell, whether he can also repel all boarders, as other chancer-male ospreys come in-aboot the nest, as they will.  Will VS be amongst them?  Sparks to come for sure, no doubt.  Watch this space.  As if you wouldn't!

So now that we have a pair, you can expect to see more of EJ, as she settles in, in earnest. For much of the past week or so, she had tended to perch nearby in an adjacent tree, out of shot, to the frustration of some of you.

The Osprey Centre opened on Wednesday 1st April, so we've all been busy meeting and greeting the first of this seasons's visitors.  Why not come and see the newly weds for yourself?

Many thanks for all the comments of support etc re the news about Nethy.  Much appreciated.

Game on.

Richard Thaxton Site Manager Loch Garten.

I am sorry to have to report that it looks like we have almost certainly lost Nethy, our female chick from last year.

We received an incomplete data set two weeks ago, giving Nethy’s position next to a river in a remote part the West African country of Guinea Bissau.  It showed no movement, but the timings of the two fixes we had, on each of three days, were the same, at 8 am and again at 4 pm, so we thought that maybe she was returning to roost in the same spot, a favourite tree perhaps. 

The data set though, was incomplete – with so few fixes, there was little to report.  The satellite might not have picked up Nethy’s signal very effectively.  She could have been perched in a shady tree for example, effectively shielding her somewhat from any satellite pass.

This is what we hoped but we needed better data to be able to draw any firmer conclusions.  On Monday this week, we received the latest and more complete data (up to 20 March) and it revealed that the signal coordinates were coming from the same place between 11 and 20 March.  No movement from her for two weeks now would appear to say it all, I am afraid. 

We can tell that the battery voltage is now very low, presumably not in sunlight and therefore not being re-charged.  There is just an outside chance that her tag might have fallen off, but we will never know for sure.  Until such time, as she returns to Scotland and is identified from her leg rings, the best we can say is Nethy is missing in action, presumed dead.

This is very sad news indeed, and given the loss of first Deshar and now Nethy, it brings into sharp focus, just how precious each and every young osprey to be reared in Scotland in any year, is to the future of the Scottish osprey population. 

Every year we bid farewell to our departing ospreys, as they head off on migration to Africa, until now, never quite knowing what becomes of them, but the tracking project has at least enabled us to find out, the albeit sad news, that many don’t make it, but we are learning a bit more all the time.  The BTO reckon that 40% of ospreys die in their first year…

As we enter a new season at Loch Garten - the Osprey Centre opened yesterday(!) with EJ back awaiting a mate, lets hope we have a successful season ahead.

I have not told the Osprey team yet.  I’m off to do that right now.