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A pleasant surprise..

Glaslyn osprey diary

Follow the fortunes of a pair of ospreys breeding near Porthmadog in north Wales.

A pleasant surprise..

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As we approach mid August we still have all five ospreys at the Glaslyn. We would have expected the female to start her migration south by now but she is still showing well most days - maybe the fact that the daughter chick is still not fishing properly for herself is cause for concern for her so she's staying just a bit longer than normal. Last Monday, Alwyn, one of our osprey wardens was lucky enough to see all five of our Glaslyn ospreys fishing in the bay at Borth y Gest near Porthmadog (right next door to Portmeirion - the Italian village). He really needs to do other things on his days off!

A question that we're asked most days is how do we know the difference between the male and female osprey? Well, apart from being slightly larger than the male, she is a lot darker than him, particularly underneath and around the chest. Look at the images below - they are quite distinct from each other, male on the left.

 

Male osprey (image Emyr Evans) Female osprey (image Emyr Evans)

I reckon that there will be ospreys at the Glaslyn until the end of the month and perhaps into September, although when the female will depart is anybodies guess - perhaps the un-seasonal southerly winds have deterred her from going. Do visit if you can, we can't promise you sunshine but we can promise ospreys most days. More in a few days..

Comments
  • Brilliant photos, again, Em. We are off to Borth y Gest to look for the family later this week!!
  • We were really very pleased when we went to Borth y Gest and saw the young female fishing. Didnt see her catch anything though. Another osprey was around too. Lovely to see them in a different place! For those who would like to go there to watch for the ospreys, a good vantage point is from the coast path at Borth y Gest, in front of the church, where there are benches overlooking the estuary and Portmeirion.
  • It's great to have so many sightings of the young ones fishing. I haven't been able to catch them at it so far.
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