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I can't take this kind of anxiety! Fingers and everything else crossed that was Odin, but surely it has to be! So pleased to see him!

You, me and the rest of the bloggers need a lie down! It is wonderful news you must all be delighted. I thought retirement this spring meant I could watch the osprey to my heart's content - all it is doing is making me go grey(er). Please explain to Odin he has far too many fans to disappear like that - it isn't fair!

The best news I have heard in ages I can finish my lunch and put away the tissues what a relief. I wonder where and why was he away so long can any one answer that one for me  I know you are busy but when things get back to normal or some of you bloggers might have some kind of answer. Alls well that ends well.

I'm not sure I can take any more of this .. its my first year of watching the nest from this early in the season ... read the previous diary entry & wept through my lunch:((( Then I looked for an update & found this wonderful news :)))) I am so pleased for everyone on the team at LG it must be hundreds of times worse for you. Here's hoping for a period of calm for you all!

Good grief - there really is no such thing as a straighforward season is there?  What a roller coaster of a ride so far - makes you appreciate all the more the difficulties faced by the osprey, and indeed by all animals, just to survive.  

Here's hoping Odin's back for good now and doesn't go off again, though I was so relieved when I saw you'd been providing fish "just in case" - it would have been too heartbreaking to have watched the real struggle for survival if you hadn't done so - thankfully that looks as though that particular issue has been resolved :-)

Just a quick thought -- could Odin have tried to fish somewhere else a lose his bearings.

REPLY:  Possibly. 

Richard: I am not joking here but with regards to the funding of the Tracking devices ... I'm sure if you were to contact Tesco Head Office and they were to view the video of the placing of fish from a Tesco Carrier Bag then I sure they would find it ever so easy to help fund the Trackers ......... you got nothing to lose but plenty to gain.

Video clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppG0VaMXJ_s

CliveT

I felt sick when I saw your first posting today and vowed not to look again for at least a day.  But I couldn't keep away and I am SO relieved that Odin (probably) is back.

As Nicola says there is no such thing as a straightforward season at LG, but if the combined prayers of all the bloggers have any effect....Let's keep praying!

Oh Richard what is Odin doing to you all at Loch Garten...your nerves must have been strung out ,I know ours were on the LG Blog and on LG Bloggers on Facebook where a group were watching as it all happened as you were putting up the ladder and they could hear voices they were gobsmacked when the net first appeared then an arm with a Tesco carrier bag LOL :) then it was fish on the nest first 1 then 2 then 3 then 4 fish! EJ looked so stunned when she arrived back on the nest to make sure her chicks were ok the last thing she expected, was to find her nest turned into a larder :) I am so glad you intervened we think so much of you for doing that :) So glad Odin is ok.... I hope he was having a day off, to fully recover from last week and the fishing line episode. I really can't imagine him having a another nest elsewhere I think EJ keeps him much to busy for that and you can see she was very glad to see him back not only for the fish present he brought her. I would definately follow the Tesco Sponsorship idea too Richard...they have an amazing advert on Youtube LOL

REPLY:  If you saw the action "live" or have looked at the footage on YouTube, then what you saw that looked like a net, wasn't.  It was the visor of the chainsaw helmet, (a hard-hat substitute) being worn for ladder climbing safety.  The close-up camera lens made it look disproportionately big and distorted.  Interestingly, on arrival at the nest, the chicks (or one of them anyway) was up & at it, looking perky with head up, eager for & anticipating fish.  This, despite EJ circling overhead alarm-calling, which is her natural signal to her brood that they are "under threat".  Their response to this is usually to lie completely still and motionless in an attempt to go un-noticed by predators, until such time as she stops alarming, which is her signal that the coast is clear.  This I think suggests this chick was very hungry, and threw caution to the wind and hoped the commotion meant food.  -  Richard

THANK YOU..THANK YOU..THANK YOU  Richard and Teams

If our bold was out on the 'razzamatazz' then EJ should have hit him with one of the fish!!!!!  We could go on forever speculating......let's just be soooooo happy he is back.

I read and follow every single day although I don't actually post that often - well today what can I say family commitments took me away this morning as they do each & every day  and my dear Mom & Dad don't have a computer. I have just returned, immediately switched on the computer and  read the first post in tears and then on the second  I really thought my heart was coming out of my chest. Only the Lord knows how you guys must feel I wonder what on earth happened to Odin I guess we'll never know but for now just thank God

That is a brillient idea of  asking Tesco to  contribute to  the tagging. Some one should call the  TV stations and  show them the video. I can see the commerial " Tesco fish are so fresh they are fresh enough for Osprey's"  Maybe if they get media attention  they will consider contributing.  Now we wait to see if Odin brings another fish.   Finger, toes and eyes crossed!

I can't help feeling a wee bit aprehensive.  Has he been back to the nest since the 13.03 post from Richard??

REPLY:  Not yet.  Hang on in there.  We are/trying to!   Richard

I wish he'd come back again, I want to make sure it really is Odin, I hope he's not going to disappear again. Doesn't he realise the state we've been in since he disappeared? These youngsters have no respect for the more mature human's state of health....... !!

I'm sure it was Odin. He has a distinctive white stripe going across the top of his head. The osprey who brought the fish has the exact same stripe.

Re Tesco sponsorship, what a great advert for Tesco Home Deliveries. I can just picture EJ in front of her new netbook ordering home delivery of fish if Odin disappears again. You can't buy publicity like that.

If Tesco aren't interested, take the fish in an Asda bag next time :)

I am so pleased Odin returned to the nest. I had read the blog about him going AWOL just before leaving for work today, Its been on my mind all day. Lets hope everything goes smoothly from now on.

I'm steadying the nerves with some good cider. It isn't helping much.  The Loch Garten Osprey family sagas always were a rollercoaster ride.......

Were the trout bought in Tesco or were they just in a Tesco carrier bag ?

REPLY:  Both.  -  Richard

To many exciting things are happening at this moment in that area of Scotland. I'm very happy everything turned out well. This morning when I was watching the webcam I saw only the young ones at the nest. I haven't seen a hand with fish, must have been silly, but I am glad you were able to feed the birds in that way. I  a few weeks we will be going to Scotland, and I hope I get to see the birds whe we visit you, thjat they are all still there. Sadly my adopted reindeer from the Cairngorms herd, whom I was going to visit as well,  died last week, so I am looking forward to some good news from that part of Scotland.

19.30

Just logged on to the blog and livestream for the first time in 2 days and I'm gutted. EJ looks so forlorn on the nest.She's very quiet, which is not like her,and scanning the sky for Odin.I pray that he'll return and continue his devotion to her and the chicks. I can't fathom why he should search for another female while he has 3 good healthy chicks to bring up and who will carry his genes. I could understand it if the eggs hadn't hatched or there had been a raid on the nest resulting in no eggs or chicks. Seems odd behaviour really. I can only hope that the wanderer returns or failing that a single male takes EJ and brood under his wing.

Hmm - can an osprey have an ASBO put on them?!  Does Odin not KNOW how many people already have high blood pressure as it is?  If you're like me you're also keeping an eye out on their relatives down at Dunkeld at Loch of Lowes - talk about ASKING for a double dose of panic?  7:47pm now and EJ looks contented enough - oblivious to all that's happening in the 'human world'!

Fantastic news. Thank you again for the work and thought you put into your updates.

I don't think there is any fish left on the nest.  Are you still going to feed them tonight if Odin doesn't return  and tomorrow.  Please do:(

Oh my! I don't think I have ever been so glad my server was down last night, and I was too busy at work to catch the blog (cant get the video) today. I missed the bad news, and logged on to get the good news.  Fingers crossed for returning to the status quo. Thanks Richard and LG team for all you do.

Oh good heavens...  Saw your previous blog earlier today at work - felt awfully sick and had to close it down quickly.  Could I cope with the anguish after Deshar last year?  Now feeling like a wimp thought I'd look again and have seen this good news!  Too early to really celebrate I guess, but it seems we're on that rollercoaster again.....  EJ looks awfully content at the moment - what does that mean?  

Soosin don't go away again just in case LOL  I think most of the bloggers are very inebriated by now  or should be.  Will it never end???  

Any chance of getting permission to put the tracking tag on Odin?  It would be fascinating

Why do I think we are not out of the woods just yet, he had been away for 30 hours (where) and then turns up when we had just about wrote him off. If ever there was a case for sat. tracking it's Odin.

I do think he has had his head turned and is trying to look after 2 nests, maybe the eggs at his other nest have recently hatched and the female has become more demanding. Didn't a female follow him from the fish farm all the way back to the nest a few days ago? What's your gut feeling in the Osprey centre?

REPLY:  Not convinced (yet) about the "other woman" theory.  Until the fishing line debacle on Thursday/Friday last week, Odin had more or less been a fixture here at Loch Garten - only ever really away long enough at any time, to fish.  He has brought in a steady stream of fish for EJ all along, and since their brood arrived.  Once over the fishing line incident, he piled in fish over Saturday, Sunday and Monday, like there was no tomorrow (!).  I just don't think he has had the time (and the energy) to take on another female.  These spells of absence have only been over Tuesday and today, Wednesday.  It's strange for sure, but could it just be that he is out of sorts after the fishing line trauma and he's just recuperating?  We just don't know.  If he's any Darwinian sense, he'll concentrate all his eggs (chicks) in one basket, and not spread himself too thinly between two nest and risk losing all.  We shall see.  There have though, (according to Roy Dennis) been some new arriving ospreys in recent days - far too late to breed this year, but he just might have had his head turned by another female looking to attract a male, but maybe once her possible flirtation with him subsides, with no breeding likely, he'll return in earnest, to where he knows he's better off and rear EJ's issue.  -  Richard

Tesco marketing people please note: your fish are so fresh they can even fool an Osprey

have been an avid watcher since last September, but 2 computer crashes have stopped me from being able to leave comments and every time I try to register it won't let me. Have now tried a different e-mail address and it's worked, but it's a problem that your techpeople need to be aware of.  Deshar's fatal flight had am inevitability about it from the moment he set off down the Atlantic, but Nethy and Odin are terrible shocks coming outof the blue when all seemed to be going superbly well. I too saw the bird land this lunch-time, but surely, it must have been a lone male trying it on, before flying off elsewhere. Why did she accept him? Desperation? And if not, and it was  Odin, what on earth is going on? Yes, it's an emotional roller-coaster, but more than that, it shows us the terrible fragility of the lives of so many of our bird species. When I first visited Loch Garten in August 2001, I took it for granted that rearing young ospreys was easy ! How wrong was I ! And it's made me so aware of the decline in orther species I took for granted , e.g the spotted flycatchers that used to nest on my house, the barn owl that vanished, the swallows whose numbers diminish round here every year.  And so it goes on, but guess what? Small consolation: we still get the cuckoo.

Tish, there's quite a bit of fish still on the nest, including what looks like a good size piece on the side nearest the camera. I hope for everyone's sake no one will be going up to the nest tonight. I have a feeling LG might wait in the morning, to see if Odin will bring a fish as he did this morning, but that's just my guess. They are the experts, after all.

Please just tell me the time Odin last  visited the nest ! i can't work it out from the comments and I'm desperate.

Maybe  Odin saw all the fish earlier and thought he didn't have to bother. But he wouldn't give up on his progeny surely. EJ is so quiet, I think she is remembering OVS. I'm finding it very very hard to 'hang on in' and I don't think I'm going to sleep much tonight.

How would LG 'catch' Odin , seaweed?  Chicks are static in the nest until that inaugural flight. I am so very downcast.

Tish its a nightmare beng away, wondering all the time. lol   Just watched the 'tesco delivery' on youtube. I liked EJ's call when she returned to the nest. I wonder if it was thank you or Oi, YOU'RE supposed to eat the head.

Janeallport, we haven't seen Odin since Richard's last post at 13.03...  Anxious times...

Richard, could I ask if, having seen the recording, you've positively identified the bird delivering the fish this lunchtime as Odin? Or could it have been another male?

REPLY: I'm very strongly of the belief that it was Odin.  Based on: her reaction to him was benign. Even if she was desperately hungry I don't think she would so readily have accepted another male at the nest, (or so soon), and especially in the presence of intruders.  Nor would she have stood up, over and to one side of the chicks, so readily in the presence of a stranger, or have settled back down so calmly on them again in his presence.  She didn't alarm call at him.  He was alarm calling as they were visited by intruders overhead, as they both stood side by side on the nest in union against the marauders. No leg rings.  Plumage features that match those of Odin. Though no sticky-up damaged wing feather as before (probably fallen out by now).  I've no reason to think it was not Odin - other than this somewhat out-of-character absenteeism.  -  Richard

Thanks Richard for the good news. You are all certainly having quite a time of it up there, and are we not only about half way through the osprey season? I must start to think more positively!

EJ is feeding the chicks now, is it a new fish brought in by Odin or a Tesco fish?

REPLY:  It's from stocks!  We've only put fish up once, this morning at c.9am.  We put four medium trout, plus Odin eventually returned and brought in a half-eaten quite large fish, so there's plenty to go at for now.  -  Richard

Was just catching up on the comings and goings of the last few days and flicked back to see EJ feeding the brood. All seem to be getting a good share. Hope Odin keeps well and bringing in the fish for all.

supper time -  youngest wedged in between siblings but getting a share, some difference in their size since I last watched them. do we have guano on the lens already?

REPLY:  Yeah, in all the tension, forgot to wipe the lens when up at tree this morning.  Will do, if there's a next time to go up.  -  Richard

Janeallport - I thought they all got their fair share when I was watching but if food is short she will ration

Richard you must really love what you're doing and what a glorious home to have -the highlands and a sort of freedom and a lot of joy (and some not) but to be able to know that you can help nature on a bit  is very satisfactory I think.  Jane I am sorry I couldn't give you some good news.  You need a hug I think.  Get down on your knees and pray again.  It worked the last time!! x

Beach Boys Song I think John B Sloop

Does anyone know the latest Odin has come in at night?  I'm  an early person so usually in my bed by now but aware of his late deliveries.    

I cant believe it, and am so sad. I had logged on last night at midnight, and went to bed comforted by the knowledge that the larder was full due to Odin. I would not have slept a wink if I'd known the facts.

I do not believe that Odin has deserted for whatever reason, because he was such a dedicated provider even after the fishing line incident. Just have to do what we did last week, hope and pray.

I did not realise it was yourself Richard that went up the ladder with the fish you are a real life saver and totally devoted to your little family in the nest .I just hope things now take a turn for the better for you all and nerves are not jangling and blood pressure returns to something like normal. I think after all the trauma in the nest a nice spell of normality would be welcomed by you all up there and us lot out here. Thanks for all you do for these birds Richard and team.

Well it certainly sounds like very good news. I'm sure everyone at LG is hugely relieved as are all the bloggers out here. I've just watched the youtube video of the brave volunteer leaving the fish on the nest. The chicks were certainly interested in what was going on. If you had to feed on a regular basis, would they get imprinted or lose their fear of people a bit?

Sorry another question. Could it be that Odin was just plain exhausted and needed a break? He's been such an excellent provider so far, maybe that plus the fishing line incident caught up with him and he had to take some time out.

REPLY:  Yes I think that is a likely explnation of his behaviour.  -  Richard

I'd like to think that your idea Richard is right and that when he's finished flirting with a possible newly arrived female, he may well return home and back to his duties... lets just hope he doesn't take to long - Whatever he is doing, be it resting/recovering or 'courting' I feel that maybe he's still in the vicinity, because I was wondering if his return was prompted by him hearing EJ alarm calling as she was circling the nest this morning when you took up the fish! - if that was the case then it maybe proves that deep down his loyalties do still lay with EJ and the triplets - it was a bit of a coincidence that after 30 hours awol, that he came back just when he did!..... or is it quite natural for Ospreys to go to each others defence if they hear alarm calls?

Just arrived home from work and sooooo relieved to hear that Odin has put in an appearance and a contribution to the larder! i was really downcast today worrying about them. i think that the tesco sponsorship idea is brilliant, think we should start a campaign? "trout for the ospreys" it would make a change from computers for schools. i would have a wee dram to settle my nerves but need to be up early in the morning again for work-ti is really interfering with my osprey vigil! wll have a quick look before i go though to make sure things are still on an even keel

Just finished to translate the last news on the Italian forum. I saw the fish delivery this morning but, when I watched the video on YouTube, the little one begging for food was Teeny Weeny! Am I wrong? Poor thing, he is the one who gets less fish. His bigger brothers are always trying to be domineering but Teeny Weeny responds accordingly. I call him a "neck-pecker" as he can't get higher than that! He looks strong willed, though. I wish him all the best: he is such a fluffy, adorable little thing :) Thanks, Richard and Team, for all your effort! You are our stars!

Please come back soon Odin, you are missed by all your adoring fans in blog land, we need to know that you are alright and looking after the family.

Thank goodness I checked in to find two updates from LG centre. First, very bad, and then much better! Roller coaster doesnt even start to describe my feelings. It brings back bad memories of last year when we lost our dear Deshar and then Nethy. Thank you for your intervention. I know you dont like to interfere with nature, but sometimes it needs just a little help. All the best for your Golden anniversary weekend. I'm sure it will be a roaring success. I wish I could be there.

I've had the cam up in the corner of my desk for a bit over an hour, and watched the new day arrive in the middle of my evening - but sadly have not seen Odin.  

It was quite light at 3:30 or so when I first looked in, though the cam was still on night vision, and EJ has been alert and looking around.  I think it must have been a warm night as one or two of the chicks have been curled up beside her but not under her some of the time.  It's now 5:12, and she's just gotten up, and the three chicks are lining up for breakfast.  I think the little one got the first bites.  They seem quite patient and orderly (so probably not too hungry) - and it looks as if she's got a large chunk of fish - so things should be OK for a while.  5:16, and she stopped feeding and flew off to the right.  Chicks huddle and look around.  And she returns from the same direction a minute or two later, and resumes the feeding.  A relatively brief feeding - but they're all still quite small.  And now she's moving in to cover them - and they are getting big enough that it takes a minute to get them mostly tucked in.  And it's after midnight where I am, so I should tuck myself in as well.  Keeping my fingers crossed that there will be good news when I wake up.

06:40, EJ feeding chicks from a bit of fish at the back of the nest which was left over from yesterday.  The wee ones are lined up and are all being fed.  Poo smear blocks viewing a little but I think I can see that there are still two fish at the front of the nest.  

EJ is feeding the chicks again with the Tesco fish, looks like Odin has vanished again

REPLY: It will be interesting to see if he shows up towards late morning/lunch time as before.  That would be my guess  -  Richard