Whatta lotta otter

Sightings of the ospreys are becoming less frequent now. The adult female has been gone for weeks and, for a few days this week, we began to think the others had done the same. On Saturday we saw just a single osprey, a couple of miles away fishing on the estuary.

That was the last sighting for a while and we were beginning to think the whole family had migrated.

Sunday - nothing, Monday - nothing, Tuesday - nothing, and then on Wednesday, a breakthrough - one of the males appeared at 11:25 am on the feeding tree high up towards the left hand side of the nest. He had a fish that he was tackling. We think it was the adult male, but it could have been YA, the youngest chick.

We've had some lovely views of an otter in the river just outside the viewing hide. On Monday 20th August it was basking in our attention at around 11am! We've seen it before, very early in the morning, but never in the middle of the day like this, so our visitors at the time were thrilled. It spent some time peering into the hide, curious to see what we were all up to I expect.

Though the ospreys are showing themselves less, we are still able to show magnificent footage of the ospreys that was recorded earlier in the season. The project has benefited from a wonderful new camera system this year, kindly funded by Environment Wales, charitable trust support (you know who you are), and installed by Criccieth TV.

The new camera system has given lots of pleasure to many people, providing breathtaking close-up footage of the osprey family, both at the visitor centre and via the webcam. Next year, we hope to have a microphone on the nest, so that we can hear the birds as well as see them.

We have been lucky enough to get some great views of other birds at the site, including two red kites in the field on the opposite side of the road circling around looking for food. They were around for the whole afternoon on Sunday.

Visitors who took part in the bird safari sessions over the weekend saw a real mix of birds including a great crested grebe, herons, kingfishers, canada geese, a sparrowhawk and our regular troop of garden birds that visit the feeders - goldfinches, chaffinches and blue tits.

By the way, thanks to everyone who attended the community weekend over the bank holiday. It was a great event with a wonderful atmosphere as always.

We are coming into the last ten days or so of the season for the Glaslyn Osprey Project, so make the most of the final weekend of school holidays and pay us a visit if you can!