Right. The up-date you've been waiting for. Firstly though, sorry for not keeping you informed until now, but we've had a very anxious time today, to put it mildly, and rather than give you incomplete piecemeal up-dates, we've awaited developments to see how things would pan-out. But now I'm able to give you, not good news, but GREAT NEWS!!
Chronologically it goes like this, roughly. Odin as you know was trailing this long length of fishing line. He returned with a fish at c.8pm last evening and it seemed like he had lost the majority of the line, but not all. When he flew from the nest after having delivered the fish, the line must have snagged on a nest stick, because he was seen flying away, line still trailing and now a stick attached. Very worrying.
He arrived again at the nest at about 10.50pm with another fish. The volunteers again thought that he had much less line on his legs and feet, but it was dusk, light was fading and the infra-red camera had kicked-in, so the pictures weren't the clearest, but we could at least hope that this was the case. It seemed like the line had snapped at the junction with the swivel. Though this left a shorter length attached to him, the weight of the swivel was now at the end, which could mean this might act as a bolas, whereby, when alighting on a perch, the swinging weighted line could wrap around a branch, Very, very worrying. Anyway, off he went to roost somewhere.
I phoned the duty volunteers at 6am this morning and the word was, no sign of Odin. Currently it is getting light here now at about 03.40am and Odin usually shows up at the nest early on, at say 4am at least, but this morning, no-show, which was a bit odd and all the more worrying. There was no sign of him all morning in fact, until about 11am, when to our huge relief, he arrived at the nest but without a fish. What had taken him so long?
As far as we could see, it did look like the line had indeed gone. But one of his wing feathers was sticking verticaly up in the air, still attached but looking like it had been wrenched out of place. Could he possibly have been strung up over night somewhere, struggling to free himself, hence his very late arrival at the nest and with this feather damage? We'll never know for sure. But it could be that Odin had a very close call.
Anyway, he was only at the nest briefly, to support EJ in repelling an intruding osprey that arrived and landed on the pillar adjacent to the nest. EJ lunged at it and sent it packing. Odin then promptly flew off. To fish, we hoped.
Several hours passed, but no sign of him returning. On such a glorious day of weather, very warm & sunny, we expected him back with a fish in an instant, but no. Again we worried. Why on such a good fishing day was he not coming back? Ordinarily, a male osprey away for several hours would be neither here nor there, but given all that gone before, we were concerned about this period of absence. Did he still have some line? Was he injured in any way as a result of a struggle to free himself?
Finally, at about 3pm this afternoon, he arrived back, and with a fish. To say we were hugely relieved would be an understatement. The tension had been unbearable, but now once again we had the chance to look for line on him and he does indeed appear to be clean. Returning with a fish was a re-assuring sign too. Maybe he's just a bit out of sorts? A little traumatised perhaps? Or possibly his fishing ability has been temporarily impaired? That out-of-align wing feather, could that affect his accuracy, making him less deft in his movements when twisting & turning when diving? Who knows?
For now though, we're back on an even keel, thank goodness. Odin, EJ and the nest seem to be free of fishing tackle, Odin has brought in a fish, chicks have been fed and are enjoying basking in the wonderful sunshine. Phew! What a day. I think I need a lie down.
Finally just to say, thanks for all your concern, support, encouragement and best wishes. It helped. Much appreciated. - Richard