More woe, I'm afraid. I can hardly bear to break the news to you, but it is looking like we might have lost Odin. He hasn't been seen since for over 24 hours, since 07.15am yesterday morning (Tuesday) and the chicks have not been fed for 27 hours since 06.20am yesterday morning.
We have no idea what might have befallen him. After last week's trauma involving fishing line, he was clean of line and over the weekend seemed to make up for lost time by bringing in a surfeit of fish for EJ and brood but he's now gone AWOL.
There are so many un-answered question; has the trauma of fishing line entanglement taken it's toll on him, either by ingestion of hooks or line? That wing damage he sustained as a result of entangelement, has that injured him in some way, even though he seemed to be able to fish well over the weekend? Has he encountered some other problem? Or is he not as saintly as we've thought, has he had his head turned by another female osprey? There have, apparently, been some very late arriving ospreys in recent days, has one of those caught his eye? Any of the above are possible, but something linked to the dificulties of last week perhaps seem most likely? Needless to say we are very worried.
Seeking counsel from Roy Dennis, he told me that he has known a time when a male was absent from an active nest for 4 days, but then re-appeared, though it is very unusual behaviour. We can but hope that Odin is ok, out there some where and that he might just return.
Meantime, we are concerned for the chicks and so to buy us (and Odin) some time, this morning we placed some trout on the nest to sustain EJ and her brood, in the hope that eventually Odin will come back, safe and sound. If you were watching this morning you might have seen hands placing fish in the nest. Sorry if this alarmed you, but we were taken over by events and the decision to do this was taken late last night, and we did not have time to forewarn you that this would be happening.
It was done under licence, shortly before 9am this morning. EJ was off the nest for just 20 minutes, returned promptly and immediately, within one minute, she began feeding on the deposited fish, and feeding the chicks. We are likely to do this for a few days, possibly morning & evening, in the hope that meantime Odin returns, but we are taking things day by day, consulting with experts and reviewing the situation.
If Odin does not return, then according to Roy, there is an outside chance that another young non-breeding male osprey intruder might respond to EJ's calls for food and those of the chicks, and possibly take on this ready-made family. Certainly last evening and again twice already this morning there have been intruders on site, at one point two of them believed to be a pair, sat in the camera tree adjacent to the nest, appearing to await EJ shifting.
Sorry to bring you this bad news, We'll keep you posted.