Sad news

Sad news from the Glaslyn osprey nest - one of the chicks died in the nest yesterday. It's impossible to say which one, all three youngsters had been feeding at around 10 am and settled down for a snooze afterwards. At around 12 noon it became clear something was wrong. There was no movement from one of the chicks, even when the female nudged and pushed it, so it must have died in its sleep.

It's upsetting news, particularly as the family had been having such a smooth and uncomplicated season. The atmosphere was pretty subdued yesterday among visitors, staff and volunteers. After following the progress of the birds from the first sighting of the male back in March, to egg laying and hatching it's a real blow to everyone and relaying the news to the 700 visitors during the day was certainly heartbreaking work.

The first thing people asked was 'why did it die?' but the honest answer is we really don't know - these things do happen unfortunately. It brings back memories of last year, when one of the three chicks died just prior to fledging.

The dead chick is still in the nest. We don't really know what will happen to it but last year the female pushed the dead one out three or four days later, so we will wait and see.

The good news is that we still have two wonderful healthy chicks up there. There has been no sign of upset or disturbance among them, they have been as chirping and lively as normal and their appetites have certainly not been affected. The male brought back a huge mullet yesterday afternoon, which they gobbled down between them and this morning they had already eaten by 8 am.