The Glaslyn osprey nest is now home to three beautiful downy white chicks. The final egg hatched on Sunday morning to the applause, whoops and cheers of 30 or more visitors in the centre. The egg had broken fairly neatly and the domes of both ends, with a clear, sticky coating inside could clearly be seen. The little chick was wriggling in the bottom of the nest, blissfully unaware of all the nervous energy that had been focused on it from down on the ground over the last 6 weeks. The egg tooth that the chick used to chip its way out of the shell has done its job now and is no longer needed. It will grow out gradually over the coming days. Indeed, it's no longer possible to make out an egg tooth on either of the two older chicks.Grow they most certainly will, especially with the amount of food that 'Dad' is bringing back. Since the third chick arrived, his instinct to provide has gone into overdrive and he has delivered a glut of fish to the nest. At one point, he was over one side of the nest feeding the chicks with rainbow trout whilst his partner was over the other side, feeding them a piece of mullet left over from earlier in the day. We haven't seen them do this feeding double act before - normally we would expect only the female to be feeding them at this early stage. The male is as keen as mustard though and even brought the rainbow trout straight to the nest without first sitting on a nearby tree to remove and eat the head - he's Super-Dad.In the next week or so, the chicks will start to lose the white bristly down that they have, with lots of white skin showing through, and will start to grow proper feathers. They will keep these feathers until they moult next year. We have seen a few stray primary adult feathers in the nest over the last week or so. This is probably a sign of the adult female moulting and growing new ones. This happens a feather or two at a time but now is a particularly good time for her to do this, as she isn't flying much at the moment and she will need to be at her peak by the time she migrates back to Afirca, probably in early August.Speaking of flying, the chicks are having an easy time lolling around at the moment but all of their growing and learning over the next 8 weeks will be building up to the moment when they waddle to the edge of the nest and plunge off to take their first flights. But, it's way too soon to think of that yet. Let's just enjoy them for the moment, whilst they're still tiny little fluff-balls - they don't stay little for long...Over the coming bank holiday (26, 27 and 28 May), we are holding a community weekend at the osprey viewing site. There will be stalls with local crafts and produce on sale, a chance to meet local organisations, or take part in competitions and children's activities. Oh yes, and see the ospreys of course!
Just like on any other day here at the viewing centre, it's completely free of charge and will be a great chance to see the newly complete osprey family. Looking forward to seeing you.
Thirty-six hours after it's older sibling hatched, chick number two broke out as well. At 11am yesterday morning, the female got up for a stretch and, behold, there was not just one fluffy body underneath her but two! As you can imagine, the 20 or so people gathered around the screens went wild! It was a great moment. The female had been wriggling and wriggling since around half past ten, so things must have been going on below for half an hour or so. With only one and a half days difference in ages, there is very little to choose between the two, they both look exactly the same. The only slight apparent difference yesterday was that the egg tooth was a little sharper and more prominent on one beak than the other (we really can see them in such detail!), so we assume that was the newest of the two. The second chick experienced its first feed at around 2pm yesterday afternoon and has had several since. It is clear when feeding that one chick is just a little more clued up than the other. It turns its head in the right direction and seems a bit more in control - probably the elder of the two. The female is very careful and tender when feeding them. She offers up tiny fragments of fish to whiever beak is available, but she doesn't hang around - if neither beak takes it, she just swallows it down herself! The chicks are propping themselves up on their tiny little wings when they feed, reaching up as high as possible. Their heads look huge compared to their skinny little necks and they have not yet got the muscles or experience to know how to control their heads properly - they flop around like unruly puppets sometimes. In these very first days though, they spend much of the time snug and warm under their mother, just like the last 6 weeks when they have been in the eggs.
Egg number three is still snug and content in the nest. If it follows the pattern of the others then it may hatch this evening. However, even inside the egg, the chick is likely to be aware of the increased activity in the nest - more movement and sounds around it - and may want to break out sooner rather than later to join in the chick jamboree - could we have a full house by the end of the day?
We have a chick! It hatched at the rather unsociable time of 11:17pm last night, so none of the visitors got to see the great event, but it was watched on the night camera by members of the 24-hour protection team.
The female is still incubating the remaining two eggs but, when she gets up to turn them and stretch her legs, we can zoom in on the chick and see it in all its fluffy glory. It is almost pure white but already the distinctive dark eye stripe, which is so characteristic of ospreys, is visible.
The chick had its first feed at 10am this morning, watched by the first visitors that had begun to arrive for the day. It was only a little feed, consisting of a few morsels of fish but there have been a further two feeds throughout today. The male, already aware that he has more mouths to feed, had brought back two by mid-afternoon and flew right over the viewing site at around 4pm, possibly going out for more. As well as hungry chicks to keep sustained, the adults' food requirements will also increase as they use up energy caring for their new arrivals.
We have had masses of people here today checking out the little one and we expect even more over the weekend, as we are hoping for a second little beak to emerge on Saturday. Let's hope the next is more considerate of its viewing public and comes out when we are all gathered around the screens in the visitor centre.